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•^ vC<' *^ 



The Radicalism of Shelley 
and Its Sources 



BY 

DANIEL J. MacDONALD. Ph. D. 



A DISSERTATION 

Submitted to the Faculty of Philosophy of the Catholic 

University of America in Partial Fulfillment of 

the Requirements for the Degree of 

Doctor of Philosophy 



WASHINGTON. D. C. 
JUNE, IS 12 



The Radicalism of Shelley 
and Its Sources 



BY 

DANIEL J. MacDONALD, Ph. I>. 



A DISSERTATION 

Submitted to the Faculty of Philosophy of the Catholic 

University of America in Partial Fulfillment of 

the Requirements for the Degree of 

Doctor of Philosophy 



WASHINGTON, D. C, 
JUNE, 1912 




5 






CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction — Nature of Radicalism 5 

Chapter I — Early Influences 12 

Lack of sympathetic home training — Eton — disappointment 
in love — Oxford, conditions there bad — meets cynic Hogg — both 
publish The Necessity of Atheism, and are expelled — marries 
Harriet Westbrook — begins correspondence with Godwin — 
visits Dublin to aid Catholic Emancipation — Conditions of 
people of England — Caleb Williams — Queen Mab. 

Chapter II — Views on Marriage and Love 36 

Parting from Harriet — views on marriage — influence of 
Godwin, of Lawrence's TJie Empire of the Naires — abuses 
of marriage in different countries — the Naires a possible source 
of Rosalind and Helen — flight with Mary Godwin — Brown's 
Wieland — The Revolt of Islam — The Missionary an important 
source of the Revolt — Platonism and his view of love — 
Epipsychidion — Mary WoUstonecraft's Vindication of The 
Rights of Women — Louvet's Memoirs. 

Chapter III — Politics 66 

Godwin's Political Justice — every kind of obedience wrong — 
views on kingcraft — on violence and punishment of death — 
reform through education — principle of justice — laws — owner- 
ship of property — luxuries — vegetarianism — Leigh Hunt — pro- 
posal for putting Reform to a vote — Prometheus Unbound — 
masque of Anarchy — philosophical view of Reform — the per- 
fectibility of man. 

Chapter IV — Religion and Philosophy %1 

His views on Christianity — not an atheist — agnostic — 
sources of views on belief, Locke, Spinoza, Drummond — God 
not a creator — Pantheism — God, Love, and Beauty identical — 
immortality of the soul — idealism — necessity — freedom of the 
will — good and evil, their origin — virtue equivalent to happi- 
ness — disbelief in the doctrine of hell. 

Chapter V — Radicalism in Contemporary Poetry 108 

Wordsworth — the Lyrical Ballads — The Prelude and Ex- 
cursion — Coleridge. 

Chapter VI — Conclusion 125 

Weakness of the Radical, of Shelley — Strength of the Radi- 
cal, of Shelley. 

Bibliography ._ 139 

Biography 143 



THE RADICALISM OF SHELLEY AND ITS SOURCES^ 

By Daniel J. McDonald, Ph.D. 

INTRODUCTION 

The following study of the development of the religious and 
political views of Shelley is made with the view to help one in 
forming a true estimate of his work and character. 

That there is a real difficulty in estimating correctly the 
life and works of Shelley no one acquainted with the varied 
judgments passed upon him will deny. Professor Trent claims 
that there is not a more perplexing and irritating subject for 
study than Shelley.^ By some our poet is regarded as an angel, 
a model of perfection; by others he is looked upon as "a rare 
prodigj' of crime and pollution whose look even might infect." 
Mr. Swinburne calls him '"the master singer of our modern 
poets," but neither Wordsworth nor Keats could appreciate 
his poetry. W. M. Rossetti, in an article on Shelley in the 
ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, writes as fol- 
lows: "In his own day an alien in the world of mind and 
invention, and in our day scarcely yet a denizen of it, he ap- 
pears destined to become in the long vista of years an inform- 
ing presence in the innermost shrine of human thought." 
Matthew Arnold, on the other hand, in one of his last essays, 
writes: "But let no one suppose that a want of humor and 
a self-delusion such as Shelley's have no effect upon a man's 
poetry. The man Shelley, in very truth, is not entirely sane, 
and Shelley's poetry is not entirely sane either." Views so 
entirely different, coming as they do from such eminent critics 
are surely perplexing. Nevertheless, there seems to be a light 
which can illumiuiite this difficulty, render intelligible his 
lite and works, and help us to form a just estimate of them. 
This light is a comprehension of the influence which inspired 
him in all he did and all he wrote — in a word, a comprehension 
of his radicalism. A great deal of the difficulty connected 
with the study of Shelley arises from ignorance concerning 



'A dissertation submitted to the Catholic University of America 
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of 
Philosophy, June, 1912. 

'Trent, The Authority of Criticism and Other Essays. 

i 



INTRODUCTION 



radicalism itself. I shall therefore begin by giving a short 
description of its nature and function. 

To many, radicalism is suggestive only of revolution and 
destruction. In their eyes it is the spouse of disorder and the 
mother of tyranny. Its devotees are wild-eyed fanatics, and 
in its train are found social outcasts and the scum of humanity. 
To others, radicalism presents a totally different aspect. 
These admit that it has been unfortunate in the quality of 
many of its adherents, but at the same time they claim that 
it has proven itself the mainspring of progress in every sphere 
of human activity. It is depicted as the cause of all the re- 
forms achieved in society. Witliout it old ideas and principles 
would always prevail, and stagnation would result. "Conserva-^- 
tive politicians," says Leslie Stephen, "owe more than they 
know to the thinkers (radicals) who keep alive a faith which 
renders the world tolerable and puts arbitrary rulers under 
some moral stress of responsibility."* 

Although radicalism is a disposition found in every period 
of history, still the word itself is of comparatively recent 
origin. It first came into vogue about the year 171)7, when 
Fox and Home Tooke joined forces to bring about a ''radical 
reform." In this epithet one finds the idea of going to the 
roots of a question, which was characteristic of eighteenth cen- 
tury philosophy. Then the expression seems to have disap- 
peared for a time. In July, 1809, a writer in the Edhihurgh 
Review says: ''It cannot be doubted that there is at the mo- 
ment ... a very general desire for a more 'radical' reform 
than would be eft'ected by a mere change of ministry."* It was 
not until 1817, however, that the adjective "radical" began to 
be used substantively. On August 18, 1817, Cartwright wrote 
to T. Northmore : "The crisis, in my judgment, is very favor- 
able for effecting an union with the radicals, of the better 
among the Whigs, and T am meditating on means to promote 
it." In 1820 Bentham wrote a pamphlet entitled Radicalism 
Xot Dangerous, and in this work he uses the word "radicalists" 
instead of "radicals." 

For a long time the word "radical" was a term of reproach. 

'English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. Chap. X. 
*Cf. Halevy, La Resolution et la Doctrine de L'Utilite. 



INTBODUCTION i 

Sir Fowell Buxton, speaking of the Kadicals, says he wa.s 
persuaded that their object was ''the subversion of religion 
and of the constitution." 

Since that time a radical has come to mean any root-and- 
branch reformer; and radicalism itself may be defined as a 
tendency to abolish existing institutions or principles. As 
soon as either of these seems to have outlived its usefulness, 
radicalism will clamor for its suppression. Discontent, then, is 
a source of radicalism. This, however, is of a dual nature — 
discontent with conditions and discontent with institiitions or 
|)rinciples. Many conservatives indulge in the former, only 
radicals in the latter. Again radicalism is not a mere ''tearing 
up by the roots," as the word is commonly interpreted, but is 
rather, as Philips Brooks writes, "a getting down to the root 
of things and planting institutions anew on just principles. 
An enlightened radicalism has regard for righteousness and 
good government, and will resist all enslavement to old forms 
and traditions, and will set them aside unless it shall appear 
that any of these liave a radically just and defensible reason 
for their existence and continuance." 

Kadicalism thrives where conditions are favorable to a 
change in ideals. It aims to establish new institutions or to 
propagate new principles, and this presupposes new ideals. As 
the habits of a man tend to correspond to his ideals, so too 
the institutions of a nation conform in a broad way to its 
ideals. In England during the Middle Ages the institutions 
of the country were strongly influenced by the religious ideal ; 
later on, when the nation's ideal became national glory, they 
assumed a political character; and now they reflect the domi- 
nant influence which the economic ideal has exerted during the 
past century. The ideals of a Y)eople than are bound to undergo 
changes, and these are sometimes, though not alwaj's, for a 
nation's good. They are developed in the main by an increase 
in knowledge and b.y industrial change. Institutions, how- 
ever, do not keep pace with this advance in ideals; and as a 
consequence discontent results and radicalism is born. 
! Moreover, institutions are never an adequate expression of 
the ideal. "Men are never as good as the goodness they know. 
Institutions reveal the same truth. The margin between what 



8 INTRODUCTION 

society knows and what it is" makes radicalism possible. In 
his introduction to The Revolt of Islam, Shelley expresses the 
same thought: "The French Revolution may be considered 
as one of those manifestations of a general state of feeling 
among civilized mankind produced by a defect of correspond- 
ence between the knowledge existing in society and the im- 
provement or gradual abolition of political institutions." The 
greater that this defect of correspondence becomes, the more 
intense will be the radicalism that inevitably ensues. 

Radicals want a change. The extent of this change differ- 
entiates them fairly well among themselves. Some would 
completely sweep away every existing institution. Thus Shel- 
ley thought the great victory would be won if he could extermi- 
nate kings and priests at a .blow. 

Let the axe 
Strike at the root, the poison-tree will falP 
Others would be content with changes of a far less radical 
character. Burke, in his early life, was the most moderate 
of these. At a time when the British constitution was sorely 
in need of reform he said concerning it: "Never will I cut it 
in pieces and put it in the kettle of any magician in order 
to boil it with the puddle of their compounds into youth and 
vigor; on the contrary, I will drive away such pretenders; 
I will nurse its venerable age and with lenient arts extend a 
parent's breath." Between these two extremes many different 
degrees of radicalism obtain. In his Ecce, Convertimur ad 
Gentes, Arnold writes: "For twenty years I have felt con- 
vinced that for the progress of our civilization here in England 
three things were above all necessary: a reduction of those 
immense inequalities of condition and property among us of 
which our land system is the cause, a genuine municipal sys- 
tem, and public schools for the middle class." 

A just appreciation of the radicalism of Shelley's poetry is 
impossible without a knowledge of the function of radicalism, 
and so it must be considered a little more in detail. 

An attempt to abolish an institution is sure to encounter 
the opposition of those whose interests are bound up with 
that institution. The good that it has accomplished in the 



'Queen Mab, Canto IV. 



INTRODUCTION 9 

past is sufficient warrant for defending it against the onslaught 
of its assailants. Lc Inen &est Vennemi du mieux. No matter 
how inadequate the institution in queston may now be, it will 
still be championed by the great majority; and were it not 
for the radicals' enthusiasm and faith in their cause their 
opposition would be in vain. As a witty exponent of home- 
spun philosophy expresses it: "Most people would rather be 
comfortable than be right." They may see that a change is 
needed, but they hold on to the old order of things as long 
as possible. Long before 1780 the French nobility realized that 
they should give up their claims to exemption from taxation, 
yet they retained them all until forced to relinquish them. 
Had the "privileges" been less conservative, the Revolution 
would never have occurred. It may be said then that radical-' 
ism is born of conservatism. Without it might would be right, 
and anything like justice would be well-nigh impossible. 

Another factor in the development of radicalism is the 
inertia of mind and will of a great many people. Most persons 
are not easily induced to undertake anything that requires 
some exertion. They prefer to sit back and let others bear the 
burdens of the day and its heat. A good example of this is 
the indifiference shown by the French Catholics towards the 
oppressive legislation of their rulers. Fortunately, however, 
in those countries where free scope is given to the individual, 
and where liberty of speech is firmly established, there will 
always be found some who are ever ready to take the initiative 
in demanding a change. Their radicalism tends to counteract 
the influence of this sleeping sickness. It holds up to men 
the ideal, and inflames them with a desire of attaining it. 

Again, the emotions do not move as fast as the intellect. 
They will cling to their objects long after the intellect has 
counselled otherwise. 

A man convinced against his will 
Is of the same opinion still.*^ 

Radicalism presents to men an ideal state where everybody 
is bright and free and happy; and thus helps to detach the 
affections from beliefs and institutions which are no longer 
helpful. The emotions may not adhere to the radicals' scheme. 



"Samuel Butler, Hudibras. 



10 i\Tiu>i)rrrioN 

but tlu\v a 1*0 at least frood from their old boudage aiul can 
eiubraee the reforms of the less conservative. The inlluenee 
that radicalism exerts in this way is a very powerful one. 
lOverybody knows (\irlyle's fauu)us outburst of rhetoric bear- 
ing on this point : "There was once a man called Jean Jacques 
Kousseau. He wrote a book called The l^ovial Co)itract. It 
was a theory and nothing but a theory. The French nobles 
laughed at the theory, and their skins went to bind the second 
edition of the book." 

The strengtii of radicalism lies in the fact that it is poetical 
and philosophical. Through i)hilosophy it makes its intluence 
felt on a country's leaders, through poetry on the citizens them 
selves. Andrew Fletcher, of Saltt>wn, has said: "Let me 
write a country's songs, and I don't care who makes its laws." 
The poet and the radical are brothers. Uoth live on abstrac- 
tions. As soon as they particularize their mission fails; the 
one ceases to bi' a [)oet and the other a radical, iii his admir- 
able essay «)n Shelley. Francis Thompson tells clergymen that 
"poetry is the preaciier to men of the eiirthly as you of the 
Heaven!}' Fairness," According to Saint Beuve "the function 
of art is to disengage the elemeuis of beauty, to escape from 
the mere frightful reality." Substitute radicalism for poetry 
and art in these «piotations and they would still be true, 
l^merson calls the poets "liberating gods." The ancient bards 
had for the title of their order: "Those who are free through- 
out the world." "They are free and they make free.'' This 
is exactly what one would write about radicals. Poetry and 
radicalisiu then go hand in hand. When radicalism is in the 
ascendant. i>oetry will throb with the feverish energy of the 
])eople. It will not only be nu)re abundant, but it will show 
more of real life — the stut¥ of which literature is made. In 
conservative tinu^s ipiestions concerning life do not agitate 
men's minds to any great extent. People take things as they 
tind them. Set men a thinking, however, place new ideals be- 
fore them, and then you get a Shakespeare and a Milttui or a 
galaxy of sparkling gems such as scintillated in the dawn 
of the nineteenth century. 

We tind then two tendencies which always exist in any 
progressive society — radicalism and conservatism. Both have 



INTUODUCTION I I 

appeared in eoiuiectiou with every phase of tlion^ht uiui lin- 
man activity. Either, as EmerHon haw said, iH a good half 
but an irnpoKsihle whoh;. One is too inip(;tiJoiiH, the other 
is too wary. The one rushf^s blindly into the future, the other 
clings too much to th(; past. There is constant warfare be- 
tween tlie two for the mastery. In a progressive comnninity 
neither of them is in the ascendant for any length of time. 
A period of radicalism is inevitably followed by one of con- 
servatism and vice vevHa. The pendulum swings to one extreme 
an<l then back Jigain to the other. Ah long as human natuir* 
will be what it is, our institutions will be defective, and change 
will be the order of the day. 'J'his no doubt results in progress, 
which Goethe has compared to a movement in a spiral 
direction. 

This action and reaction is reflected in the literature of a 
nation. No matter what definition of literature we may ac 
cept, whether it be Newnuin's personal use of language, Swin- 
burne's imagination and hiirmony, or Matthew Arnold's criti- 
cism of life, it will always be found that literature is a crys- 
tallization of the ideals of the Mge. This is true both of poetry 
and of prose. (The poet is not an isolated individual. On 
the contrary, he is peculiarly sensitive to the influences whicli 
surround him. He is the revealer and the awakener of these 
influences.) "And the poet listens and he hears; and he looks 
and he sees; and he Jxiuds lower and lower and he weeps; 
and then growing with a strange growth, drawing from all 
the darkness about him his own transfiguration, he stands 
erect, terrible and tender, above all those wretched ones — 
those of high i»lace as well as those of low, with flaming eyes."^ 



^Open Court. 



CHAPTER I 

KAllLY INFLUENCKS 

The iuteusity of one's radicalism depends on the extent to 
which the institutions of a country cause one suffering and 
disappointment. Shelley says in Julian and Maddalo: 

Most wretched men 
Are cradled into poetry by wrong, 
They learn in sufferinj; what they teach in song. 

A description of Shelley's radicalism tlien must take accoimt 
of all the circumstances that tended to make him dissatisfied 
with existing institutions. Some of these circumstances may 
seem trifling, but then it must be remembered that events 
which appear insignificant sometimes have far-reaching effects. 
Pascal remarked once that the whole aspect of the world would 
be dift'erent if Cleopatra's nose had been a little shorter. The 
history of Shelley's life is a series of incidents which tended 
to nuike him radical. He never had a chance to be anything 
else. No sooner wo\ild he be brought in contact with con- 
servative inrtuences than something would happen to push 
him again on the high road of revolt. Even were he tempera- 
mentally conservative (and Hogg says that "his feelings and 
behavior were in many respects highh' aristocratical"), the 
experiences that he underwent were of such a nature as to 
inevitably lead him into radicalism. 

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born at Field Place, in the county 
of S'ussex, on Saturday', the 4th of August. 1702. His family 
was an ancient and honorable one whose history extends back 
to the days of the Crusades. His grandfather. Bysshe Shel- 
ley, born in America, accumulated a large fortune, married two 
heiresses, and in ISOG received a baronetcy. In his old age 
he became whimsical, greedy, and sullen. He was a skeptic 
hoping for nothing better than annihilation at the end of life." 
With regard to the poet's father, it is very difficult to form 
a just estimate. There is no doubt that Shelley enthusiasts 
decried the father too much in their efforts to canonize the 
son. It would indeed be strange to find any father at that 



' Ingpen, Letter Jan. 26. 1S12. 



EARLY INFLUENCES 13 

time who would be capable of giving our poet that guidance 
and training which his nature demanded. It was a time when 
might was right, when the rod held a large place in the forma- 
tion or a boy's character. We must not be too severe then on 
the father if he was unacquainted with the proper way of 
dealing with his erratic son. No one who has read Jeafferson's 
life of the poet will say that Bysshe treated his son too 
harshly. It was his judgment rather than his heart that was 
at fault. Medwin remarks that all he brought back from 
Europe was a smattering of French and a bad picture of 
an eruption of Vesuvius. 

It is to his mother that Shelley owes his beauty and his good 
nature. He said that she was mild and tolerant, but narrow- 
minded. Very few references to the home of his boyhood are 
made in his poetry; and this leads us to believe that neither 
his father nor his mother had much influence over him. 

In his childhood he seems to have had the day dreams and 
reveries that Wordsworth had. "Let us recollect our sensa- 
tions as children," Shelley writes, in the Efisay on Life, "What 
a distinct and intense apprehension had we of the world 
and of ourselves! . . . We less habitually distinguished all 
that we saw and felt from ourselves. They seemed, as it 
were, to constitute one mass. There are some persons who 
in this respect are always children. Those who are subject 
to the state called reverie feel as if their nature were dissolved 
into the surrounding universe or as if the surrounding uni- 
verse were absorbed into their being." In Book II of the 
Prelude W^ordsworth gives expression to a similar experience : 

Oft in these moments such a holy calm 
W^ould overspread my soul that bodily eyes 
Were utterly forgotten, and what I saw 
Appeared like something in myself — a dream 
A prospect in the mind. 

Shelley from the very beginning delighted in giving free 
scope to his imagination. In the garret of the house at Field 
Place he imagined there was an alchemist old and grey ponder- 
ing over magic tomes. The "Great Old Snake" and the "Great 
Tortoise" were other wondrous creatures of his imagination 
that lived out of doors. He used to entertain his sisters with 



14 EARLY INFLUENCES 

weird stories about hobgoblins and ghosts ; and even got them 
to dress themselves so as to represent fiends and spirits. In 
the Hymn to Intellectual Beauty he writes : 

While yet a boy I souglit for ghosts and sped 
Thro' many a listening chamber, cave and ruin 
And starlight wood, with fearful steps j)ursuiug, 
Hopes of high talk with the departed dead. 

He was attached to the occult sciences and sometimes 
watched whole nights for ghosts. Once he described minutely 
a visit which he said he had paid to some neighbors, and it was 
discovered soon afterwards that the whole story was a 
fabrication. 

At ten years of age he was sent to Sion House Academy, 
Isleworth, where he met his cousin and future biographer, 
Thomas Medwin. The other boys, Medwin tells us, considered 
him strange and unsocial. It was at this school that Shelley 
first became acquainted with the romantic novels of Anne 
Radclift'e and the other novelists of the School of Terror. Here 
too he became greatly interested in chemistry and astronomy. 
The idea of a plurality of worlds, through which we "should 
make the grand tour," enchanted him. Thus we see that he 
began very early to live in the unreal and the wonderful. 

In 1804 he went to Eton, and there he was known as "Mad 
Shelley" and "Shelley the Atheist." The word "atheist" here 
does not mean one who denies the existence of God. According 
to Hogg, it was a term given to those who distinguished them- 
selves for their opposition to the authorities of the school. 
The title must have fallen into disuse shortly after Shelley's 
time, as Professor Dowdou failed to find at Eton any trace 
of this peculiar usage of the word. Here he became interested 
in physical experiments and carried them on at unseasonable 
hours. For this he was frequently reprimanded by his supe- 
riors, but he proved to be very untractable. 

At Eton Shelley became acquainted with Dr. Lind, whom he 
immortalized as a hermit in The Revolt of Islam and as 
Zonoras in Prince Athanase. It was Dr. Lind, according to 
Hogg, who gave Shelley his first lessons in French philos- 
ophism. Jeafferson says that he taught Shelley to curse his 



EARLY INFLUENCES 15 

superiors aiul to write letters to unsuspecting persons to trip 
them up with catch questions and then laugh at them.® 

An event occurred in the summer of 1810 which had consid- 
erable influence in developing the radicalism of Shelley. He 
had known and loved his cousin, Harriet Grove, from child- 
hood, and during the vacation of this year asked her to be his 
wife. Harriet's family, however, became alarmed at his atheis- 
tical tendencies and made lier give up all communications 
with him. This angered him very much, and made him declaim 
against what he considered to be bigotry and intolerance. In 
a letter to Hogg, December 20, 1810, he writes: "O! I burn 
with impatience for the moment of the dissolution of intoler- 
ance; it has injured me. I swear on the altar of perjured 
love to revenge myself, on the hated cause of the effect; which 
even now I can scarcely help deploring. . . . Adieu! Down 
with bigotry! Down with intolerance! In this endeavour 
your most sincere friend will join his every power, his every 
feeble resource. Adieu!" And in a letter of January 3, 
1811 : **She is no longer mine! She abhors me as a skeptic as 
what she was before! Oh, bigotry! When I pardon this last, 
<his severest of thy persecutions, may Heaven (if there be 
wrath in Heaven) blast me!*' Tliese ravings show Shelley to 
have been nervous, hysterical, and supersensitive. 

The breaking of this engagement with Harriet made such an 
impression on him as to convince him that he should combat 
all those influences which caused the rupture. The story of 
Shelley's life might have been an entirely different one had he 
been allowed to marry Harriet Cirove. Man is a stubborn 
animal. Once he takes up a certain side, opposition merely 
serves to strengthen his convictions and make him fight all 
the harder. If Shelley's willfulness had been ignored instead 
of opposed, I have no doubt that he would have seen things 
in their proper light and would never have been the rabid 
radical that he became. An Etonian called once on Shelley in 
Oxford and asked him if he meant to be an atheist there too. 
"No !" he answered, "certainly not. There is no motive for it ; 
they are very civil to us here; it is not like Eton."^ It is 



"The Real Shelley, Vol. I, p. 97. 
•Hogg: Life of Shelley, p. 136. 



16 EARLY INFLUENCES 

Medwin's conviction that Shelley never completely overcame 
his love for Harriet. Hogg notes that as late as 1813 Shelley 
loved to play a simple air that Harriet taught him. In the 
Epipsychidion he refers to her thus : "^And one was true — 
Oh ! why not true to me ?" Love was to Shelley what religion 
is to the ascetic. He could not understand why one should 
put obstacles in the way of anyone in love, and so he thinks 
himself in duty bound to fight everything that supports this 
hated intolerance. This led him to wage war against religion 
itself. 

Shelley entered University College, Oxford, in the Michael- 
mas term of 1810. It was unfortunate for him that condi- 
tions at the university were as deplorable as they were. He 
did not find there the intellectual food that his mind needed, 
and no doubt his sensitive soul was scandalized by what it 
felt. Intellectual life there was dull. Mark Pattison^" says 
Oxford was nothing more than a grammar school, the college 
tutors were a little inferior to public school directors, and 
they obtained their positions through favoritism and not 
through merit. Copleston, a defender of the university against 
the attacks of the Edinburgh RevietOy admitted that only ex- 
treme incapacity or flagrant idleness would prevent a student 
from obtaining his degree at the end of his course. Fynes 
Clinton, in his Autohiogrophij, tells us that Greek studies at 
Christ Church were very much neglected. During his seven 
years of residence grammar, syntax, prosody were never 
mentioned. Students rarely attended lectures. Much of their 
time was passed in hunting, drinking, and every kind of de- 
bauchery. "At boarding schools of every description," writes 
Mrs. Wollstonecraft, "the relaxation of the junior boys is 
mischief; and of the senior, vice. Besides, in great schools, 
what can be more prejudicial to the moral character than 
the system of tyranny and abject slavery which is established 
among the boys, to say nothing of the slavery to forms, which 
makes religion worse than a farce? For what good can be 
expected from the youth who receives the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper, to avoid forfeiting half-a-guinea, which he 
probably afterwards spends in some sensual manner?"" 

^"Oxford Studies (1855), quoted in Koszul, p. 59. 
^'Rights of Woman, Ch. 12, p. 174. 



EARLY INFLUENCES 17 

Such was the atmosphere in which Shelley was phiced, aud 
it is little wonder that it hastened the growth of the seeds 
of discontent and revolt which had been already implanted 
in his soul. 

Misfortune still pursued Shelley. Had he formed friend- 
ships at Oxford with men of sober intellect, the whole course 
of his life might have been changed. Unfortunately he soon 
found a kindred spirit in the cynic Hogg. 

This friend of Shelley gives us minute details of the poet's 
life there. He thinks that Shelley took up skeptical philosophy 
because of the advantage it gave him in argument. Hume's 
Essays was a favorite book with Shelley, and he was always 
ready to put forward in argument its doctrines. It may seem 
strange that this cold skeptical pliilosophy appealed to such 
an imaginative poet as Shelley; but destruction, as Hogg 
remarks, so that it be on a grand scale, may sometimes prove 
hardly less inspiring than creation. '"The feat of the magician 
who, by the touch of his wand, could cause the great pyramid 
to dissolve into the air would be as surprising as the achieve- 
ment of him who by the same rod could instantly raise a 
similar mass in any chosen spot." 

On September 18, 1810, Stockdale offered for sale a volume 
of poetry b}^ Shelley entitled '^Original Poetry : by Victor and 
Cazire." The book was not out long when it was discovered 
that many of the poems were stolen property — a fraud on the 
public and an infringement of at least one writer's copyright. 
The book was at once withdrawn and suppressed. Some doubt 
exists as to the name of the person wlio cooperated with Shel- 
ley in producing this book. Shelley enthusiasts say that Shelley 
was the unsuspicious victim of an unworthy coadjutor. Jeaf- 
ferson is of the opinion that Shelley was fully conscious of the 
fraud that was being done. This biographer maintains that 
Shelley was an inveterate liar. 

''About this time," says Stockdale, "not merely slight hints 
but constant allusions, personally and by letters, . . . rendered 
me extremely uneasy respecting ]Mr. Shelley's religious, or 
indeed irreligious, sentiments." Shelly's father too was worry- 
ing at this time about his son's loss of faith. He may have 
received the first intimation of his son's speculations from a 



18 EARLY INFLUENCES 

criticism in The Critical Reviexo of another work of Shelley's, 
Zastroszi, in which the unknown author was condemned as an 
offender against morality and a corrupter of youth. The irate 
father wrote to his son and severely reprimanded him for his 
conduct. 

In a letter to Hogg, Shelley says : '*My father wrote to me, 
and 1 am now surrounded, environed by dangers, to which 
compared the devils who besieged St. Anthony were all ineffi- 
cient. Thej' attack me for my detestable principles, I am 
reckoned an outcast, yet I defy them, and laugh at their 
ineffectual efforts, etc." And in another letter: '^My mother 
imagines me to be on the highroad to Pandemonium; she 
fancies I want to make a deistical coterie of my little sisters. 
How laughable !'' Shelley imagines the whole world is against 
him. He feels very keenly his isolation. He says his ''soul was 
bursting." There is a relief though. '•! slept with a loaded 
pistol and some poison last night, but did not die." 

Shelle}" thought he was called upon to come to the aid of 
all those in distress. We find him at this time aiding aspiring 
authors, and defending traitorous politicians. An Irish jour- 
nalist, Peter Finnerty, was condemned for libel and sentenced 
to eighteen months' imprisonment in Lincoln jail. Shelley 
contributed to a subscription list in aid of Finnerty and also 
wrote a poem entitled A Poetical Essay on the Existing 
State of Things to help on the cause. Leigh and John Hunt, 
who defended Finnerty in The Examiner, were tried for sedi- 
tious libel and acquitted. Shelley rejoiced over their triumph, 
and wrote the following letter to Leigh Hunt congratulating 
him and proposing a scheme for the mutual defense of all 
friends of "rational liberty." 

University College, Oxford, 
March 2, 1811. 
Sir: — Permit me, although a stranger, to offer my sincerest 
congratulations on the occasion of that triumph so highly to be 
prized by men of liberality; permit me also to submit to your 
consideration, as one of the most fearless enlighteners of the 
public mind at the present time, a scheme of mutual safety 
and mutual indemnification for men of public spirit and prin- 
ciple, which, if carried into effect, would evidently be produc- 
tive of incalculable advantages. 



EARLY INFLUENCES 19 

The ultimate intention of my aim is to induce a meeting of 
such enlightened, unprejudiced members of the community 
. . , and to form a methodical society, which should be organ- 
ized so as to resist the coalition of the enemies of liberty. . . . 
It has been for the want of societies of this nature that cor- 
ruption has attained the height at which we behold it; nor 
can any of us bear in mind the very great influence which, 
some years since, was gained by lUuminism, without consider- 
ing that a society of equal extent might establish rational lib- 
erty on as firm a basis as that which would have supported the 
visionary schemes of a completely equalized community, . , . 
On account of the responsibility to which my residence in this 
universitj'^ subjects me, T, of course, dare not publicly avow 
all that I think; but the time will come when I hope that ray 
every endeavor, insuflBcient as they may be, will be directed 
to the advancement of liberty. 

Your most obedient servant, 

P. B. 8HELLEY. 

One of the books read by Shelley at this time was the Abbe 
Barruel's Memoircs pour servir a rhifstoirc tin Jacohinisinc, 
which contains an account of the Society of Illuminists. The 
remarkable success of this society in propagating free thought 
and revolutionary principles evidently inspired Shelley to at- 
tempt the formation of a similar society in England. His pro- 
posals, though, fell on deaf ears, and it is probable that Leigh 
Hunt did not even acknowledge the receipt of Shelley's letter. 

In February, 1811, a small pamphlet, The Necefisitij of Athe- 
ism, which was written by Shelley, was published anonymously. 
According to Hogg, Shelley had a custom of writing to divines 
and engaging them in controversy on the existence of God. 
The Necessity of Atheism is merely an elaboration of the 
arguments of these letters. The masters and some of the fel- 
lows of Oxford sent for Shelley and asked him if he were the 
author of the work. He replied that they should produce their 
evidence, if they could prove he wrote it, and not question him 
because it was neither just nor lawful to interrogate him in 
such a case and for such a purpose. Shelley refused to answer 
their questions and was given one day in which to leave the 
college. His friend Hogg shared the same fate for the same 
reason. Shelley never received any admonition nor hint that 
his speculations were improper. Hogg says ''there can be no 
reasonable doubt that he would at once have acceded to what- 



20 EARLY INFLUENCES 

ever had been proposed to him by authority."^'- Every kind of 
disorder was tolerated at the university, and Shelley and Hogg 
had no suspicion that their metaphysical speculations were 
considered so much worse than drunkenness and immorality. 
If the sentence was not unjust, it was at least needlessly harsh. 
Shelley felt the sting of this disgrace very keenly, and it did 
much to embitter him against all kinds of authority. 

Shelley and Hogg proceeded to Loudon after their expulsion 
and obtained rooms in Poland Street. The name reminded 
Shelley of Kosciusko and Freedom. Timothy Shelley wrote to 
his son, commanding him to abstain from all communication 
with Hogg and place himself "under the care and society of 
such gentlemen as he should appoint" under pain of being 
deprived of all pecuniary aid. Shelley refused to comply with 
these proposals. Toward the middle of April Hogg left Lon- 
don to settle down to his legal training in York. 

it was about this time that Shelley became acquainted with. 
Harriet Westbrook. She wrote him from London that she was 
wretchedly unhappy, that she was about to be forced to go 
to school, and wanted to know if it would be wrong to put 
an end to her miserable life. Another letter from her soon 
followed, in which she threw herself upon his protection and 
proposed to fly with him. Shelley hastened to London, and 
after the delay of a few weeks eloped with Harriet to Edin- 
burgh, where they were married on August 28, 1811. Shelley 
agreed to go through the ceremony of matrimony to save his 
wife from the social disgrace that would otherwise fall 
upon her. 

Writing to Miss Hitchener on March 14, 1812, Harriet says: 
*'l thought if 1 married anyone it should be a clergyman. 
Strange idea this, was it not? But being brought up in the 
Christian religion, 'twas this first gave rise to it. You may 
conceive with what horror I first heard that Percy was an 
atheist ; at least so it "was given out at Clapham. At first 1 
did not comprehend the meaning of the word ; therefore when 
it was explained I was truly petrified. ... I little thought 
of the rectitude of these principles and wlien I wrote to him 
I used to try to shake them — making sure he was in the wrong, 



*Hogg, Life of Shelley, p. 71. 



BA.RLY INFLUENCES 21 

and that myself was right. . . . Now, however, this is entirely 
done away with, and my soul is no longer shackled with such 
idle fears.'' This would indicate that he spent more time 
proselytizing Harriet tlian in making love to her. 

It has been said that Harriet's sister, Elizabeth, managed 
the whole affair, and that the marriage was brought about 
through her successful plotting.'-^ After spending five weeks 
in Edinburgh, Shelley, Harriet, and Hogg went to York. 
They were joined there by Elizabeth, who henceforth ruled 
over Shelley's household with a stern hand. Sfhe is partly 
responsible for the estrangement of Shelley and his wife. 

During all this time Shelley was in need of money, and 
shortly after their arrival at York went south to induce his 
father to provide them with the means of living. While he 
was absent Hogg tried to seduce Harriet. Shelley sought an 
explanation from Hogg, and pardoned him ''fully and freely." 
Shelley's account of the affair in a letter to Miss Hitchener 
savors much of (iodwinism. "1 desired to know fully the 
account of this affair. I heard it from him and I believe he 
was sincere. All T can recollect of that terrible day was that 
I pardoned him — fully, freely pardoned him; that I woukl 
still be a friend to him and hoped soon to convince him how 
lovely virtue was; tliat his crime, not himself, was the object 
of my detestation; that I value a human being not for what 
it has been but for what it is; that I hoped the time would 
come when he would regard this horrible error with as mucli 
disgust as I did.'"* 

Early in November, Shelley, his wife, and Eliza left York 
suddenly for Keswick. Shelley's father and grandfather 
feared that the poet would parcel out the family estate to soul- 
mates, and so they proposed to allow him £2,000 a year if he 
would consent to entail the property on his eldest son, and 
in default of issue, on his brother. The proposition was in- 
dignantly rejected. He considered that kinship bore that 
lelation to reason which a band of straw does to fire. "I am 



""II est vrai que Shelley courait un pen a I'amour de Harriet comme 
MacBeth courait au meurtre de Duncan. 'Ce qu'il faisait ressemblait 
plutot a un coup de volonte qu' a un elan de passion." — La Jeunesse de 
Shelley, Koszul, p. 86. 

"Ingpen, Vol. I, p. 155. 



22 EARLY INFLUENCES 

led to love a being not because it stands in the pliysical rela- 
tion of blood to me but because I discern an intellectual 
relationship." 

Early in 1812 Shelley started a correspondence with William 
Godwin, to whom he was then a stranger. In his first letter 
he writes: "The name of Godwin has been used to excite in 
me feelings of reverence and admiration. I have been accus- 
tomed to consider him a luminary too dazzling for the dark- 
ness which surrounds him. From the earliest period of my 
knowledge of his principles I have ardently desired to share, 
on the footing of intimacy, tliat intellect which I have de- 
lighted to contemplate in its emanations." 

Godwin's influence with the revolutionists of this time was 
great. Coleridge and Southey were his ardent disciples for 
a time. "Throw aside your books of cliemistry," said Words- 
worth to a student, "and read Godwin on necessity." This 
philosopher seemed to ])rovide them with a simple, compre- 
hensive code of morality, wliich gave unlimited freedom to the 
reason, and justice as complete as possible to the individual. 

In February, 1812, the Shelleys went to Dublin to help on 
the cause of moral and intellectual reform. He published 
there an "Address to the Irish People" which he had written 
during his stay at Keswick. Shelley's mission was moral and 
educational rather than political. lie advocated Catholic 
Emancipation and the Repeal of the Union; but he thought 
that he should first of all strive to dispel bigotry and intoler- 
ance — "to awaken a noble nation from the lethargy of de- 
spair."^^ W^hat Irishmen needed most of all were knowledge, 
sobriety, peace, benevolence — in a word, virtue and wisdom. 
"WHien you have these things," he said, "you may defy the 
tyrant." It is not surprising that his mission turned out to be 
a fiasco, (iodwin wrote Shelley several letters in which he 
tried to convince him that his pamphlets and Association 
would stir up strife and rebellion. "Shelley," he writes, "you 
are preparing a scene of blood." The poet accordingly with- 
drew his pamphlets from circulation and quitted Ireland. 

Shelley then crossed over to Wales, and after a short resi- 
dence at Nangwillt settled at Lynmouth. Elizabeth Kitchener, 



mogg, Vol. II, p. 52. 



EARLY INFLUENCES 23 

''the sister of his soiil,"^*' joined them there. The poet first 
met her at Cuckfield while visiting his uncle, Captain Pilfold. 
She was a schoolmistress, professing very liberal opinions 
and possessing "a tongue of energy and an eye of fire." 
Everybody that Shelley admired seemed to him perfect, while 
those whom he disliked were fiends. Their correspondence, 
which extends over a period of more than a year, gives us a 
good picture of the workings of Shelley's mind during this 
time. They all moved to London in November. It was not 
to be expected that a combination of even such disinterested, 
enlightened superior mortals as these could last long. Eliza- 
beth's influence over Shellej'^ soon began to wane. His dislike 
for her was equalled only bj' liis former extravagant praise. 
She was no longer his angel, but was now known as the 
''Brown Demon." "She is," he writes, "an artful, superficial, 
ugly, hermaphroditical beast of a woman, and my astonish- 
ment at my fatuity, inconsistency, and bad taste was never 
so great as after living four months witli her as an inmate. 
What would hell be were such a woman in heaven?" Miss 
Hitchener took her leave of the Shelleys and again became a 
schoolmistress. 

Shelley and his family spent some time in Wales and Dub- 
lin and then returned again to London in April, 1813. 

It was about this time that he finished Queen Mah. On 
February 19, 1813, Shelley wrote to Hookham, his publisher: 
"You will receive Queen Mah with the other poems; I think 
that the whole should form one volume." Medwin says that 
he commenced this work in the autumn of 1809. "After his 
expulsion he reverted to his Queen Blah commenced a year 
and a half before, and converted what was a mere imaginative 
poem into a systematic attack on the institutions of society." 
What was it that induced him to make the change? There is 
no doubt but it was his experience of the misery and suff'ering 
around him that prompted him to attack society as he did. 

Radicalism, as has already been shown, springs from dis- 
content. The worse existing conditions are, the more pro- 
nounced will be the radicalism that usually arises. Condi- 
tions — moral, political and social — during the latter hnlf cf 



'Wordsworth uses this expression in the conclusion of TJic Prelude. 



24 EARLY INFLUENCES 

the eighteenth ceutui-y were very bad indeed. In his inimitable 
sketches of the four Georges, Thackeray asserts that the dis- 
soluteness of the nation was awful. He depicts the lives of its 
princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion as idle, profligate, 
and criminal. '^Around a young king himself of the most 
exemplary life and undoubted piety lived a court society as 
dissolute as our country ever knew." Education was sadly 
neglected. In Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison, published 
1753, Charlotte gives an account of her two lovers. One of 
them is an ideal specimen of the young nobility and is rep- 
resented as spelling pretty well for a lord. Tn Ireland, the 
colonies, and even in England itself, oppression was well-nigh 
intolerable. Byron's Age of Bronze contains a good descrip- 
tion of the way in which the landlords treated their tenants. 
The changes that followed in the wake of the Industrial Revo- 
lution caused untold suffering. The spread of machinery de- 
stroyed the old domestic industries of spinning and weaving, 
and many were consequently deprived of their most important 
source of subsistence. Children took up the places of the 
master craftsmen; and the amount of misery that this sub- 
stitution entailed to both children an<l craftsmen is almost 
incredible.^" Politics was rotten to the core. Even the great 
commoner, William Pitt, has been convicted by Macaulay, of 
sacrificing his principles without any scruple whatever. The 
l>olitical corruption started by Walpole was organized into 
a system. Every man had his price. "Politicians arc mere 
jobbers; officers are gamblers and bullies; the clergy are 
contemned and are contemptible; low spirits a]id nervous 
disorders have notoriously increased, until the people are no 
longer capable of self-defense."^^ In their struggle with the 
Stuarts the people were completely victorious; but it soon 
became apparent that they had simply substituted one evil 
for another. The despotism exercised bj^ the Stuarts was now 
practiced by the Dodingtons and the Winningtons. Burke ob- 
serves : "The distempers of monarchy were the great subjects 
of apprehension and redress in the last century. In this the 
distempers of Parliament." 



"Cf. The Excursion, Book VIII. 

"Leslie Stephen: English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. II. 



EARLY INFLUENCES 25 

The House of Commons was not responsible to anybody; 
and its members showed very little consideration for their 
constituents. Pei'sons who were not acceptable to the ruling 
party were often iined and .imprisoned without due process 
of law. It is little wonder then that Godwin, Shelley, and 
others declaimed against all forms of government. They were 
acquainted onl,y with the Parliament of the Georges and the 
oligarchy of the Stuarts, and the one was as bad as the other. 

The national debt was trebled in the space of twenty years, 
thus imposing heavy sacrifices on all. There was an income- 
tax of two shillings on a pound sterling; but the taxes which 
caused the most suffering to the poor were the indirect taxes 
on wheat, shoes, salt, etc. In 1815 a law was passed prohibit- 
ing the importation of wheat for less than eighty shillings the 
quarter.^'' No doubt the wealth of the country became very 
great through the development of new resources, but it was 
distributed among tlie few and gave no relief to the common 
people. 

The poor laws were working astounding evils. ^A'ith wheat 
at a given price, the minimum on which a man with wife and 
one child could subsist was settled; and whenever the family - 
earnings fell below the estimated minimum, the deficiency was 
to be made up from the rates. In this way the path to pauper- 
ism was made so easy and agreeable that a large portion of 
the laboring classes drifted along it. This sA'stem set a pre- 
mium on improvidence if not on vice. The inevitable effect 
was that wages fell as doles increased, that paupers so pen- 
sioned were preferred by the farmers to independent laborers, 
because their labor was cheaper, and that independent laborers, 
failing to get work except at wages forced down to a minimum, 
were constantly falling into the ranks of pauperism. It was 
not until 1834 that "a new poor law" was enacted which 
eliminated these evils.-*^ 

From one end of the kingdom to the other the prisons were 
a standing disgrace to civilization. Imprisonment from what- 
ever cause it miglit be imposed meant consignment to a living 



^'Koszul, p. 340. 

''"Cf. Social England, Trail and Mann, p. 825, also The Political History 
of England, by Broderick and Fotheringham, p. 340. 



26 EARLY INFLUENCES 

tomb. Jails were pesthonses, in wliich a disease, akin to onr 
modern typhus, flourished often in epidemic form. They were 
mostly private institutions leased out to ruthless, rapacious 
keepers who used every menace and extortion to wring money 
out of the wretched beings committed to their care. Prisons 
were dark because their managers objected to pay the window 
tax. Pauper prisoners were nearly starved, for there was 
no regular allowance of food. Howard's crusade against prison 
mismanagement produced tangible results, but after his death 
the cause of prison reform soon dropped, the old evils revived, 
and at the beginning of the nineteenth century were every- 
where visible."^ 

The Church of England, it appears, had become an object 
of contempt. No doubt Selwyn's Dr. Warner is a distorted 
picture of the clergymen of the time; yet there is reason to 
believe that Anglican parsons were not very much concerned 
with the salvation of souls. ''The riuirch had become a vast 
machine for the promotion of her own officers. How admir- 
able an investment is Religion I Such is the burden of their 
pleading!'' 

Some of the conventionalities of the age were so absurd as 
to engender sooner or later a spirit of revolt. Servant? 
said ''your honor" and ''your worship'' at every moment : 
tradesmen stood hat in hand as the gentlemen passed by : chap- 
lains said grace and retired before the pudding. ''In the days 
when there were fine gentlemen, Mr. Secretary Pitt's under- 
secretaries did not dare to sit down before him ; but Mr. 
Pitt, in his turn, went down on his gouty knees to George II; 
and when George III spoke a few kind words to him, Lord 
Chatham burst into tears of reverential joy and gratitude; so 
awful was the idea of tlie monarch, and so great the distinc- 
tion of rank."" Not to use hair powder was an unpardonable 
offence. Southey and Savage Landor were among the first 
to appear Avitli their hair in statu naturali and this action 
of theirs produced an extraordinary sensation. 

Cah'h Williams, written by William Godwin in 1793, is a 
severe indictment of the customs and institutions of England. 



'Social England, Trail and Mann, p. 665. 
-Thackeray, The Four Georges. 



EARLY INFLUENCES 27 

"Things as they are," is the subtitle of the work, and on that 
account an outline of the work will supplement the review of 
society already given. ''Caleb Willmms/' writes Professor 
Dowden, "is the one novel of the days of revolution embodying 
the new doctrine of the time which can be said to survive."-'' 

In the first preface to Caleb Williams Godwin says that the 
story is "a study and delineation of things passing in the 
moral world. Its object is to show that the spirit and 
character of the Government intrudes itself into every rank 
of society." "Accordingly," he writes, ''it was proposed in the 
invention of the following work to comprehend, as far as the 
progressive nature of a single story would allow, a general 
review of the modes of domestic and unrecorded despotism by 
which man becomes the destroyer of man." 

Caleb Williams shortly after the death of his father, became 
secretary of Ferdinand Falkland, a country squire living in 
a remote county of England. ]\Ir. Falkland's mode of living 
was very recluse and solitary. He avoided men and did not 
seem to have any friends in whom he confided. He scarcely 
ever smiled, and his manners plainly showed that he was 
troubled and unhappy. He was considerate to others, but he 
never showed a disposition to lay aside the stateliness and 
reserve which he assumed. Sometimes he was hasty, peevish, 
and tyrannical, and would even lose entirely his self-possession. 

Mr. Collins, Falkland's steward, tells Williams that their 
master was not always thus, that he was once the gayest of 
the gay. In response to Caleb's entreaties, Collins unfolds 
as much as he knows of their master's history. He tells him 
that Mr. Falkland spent several years abroad and distin- 
guished himself wherever he went by deeds of gallantry and 
virtue. At length he returned to England with the intention 
of spending the rest of his days on his estate. His nearest 
neighbor, Barnabas Tyrrel, was insupportably arrogant, tyran- 
nical to his inferiors and insolent to his equals. On account of 
his wealth, strength, and copiousness of speech he was re- 
garded with admiration by some, but with awe by all. The 
arrival of Mr. Falkland threatened to deprive Tyrrel of his 
authority and commanding position in the community. Tyrrel 



"The Frencih Revolution and English Literature, p. 76. 



28 EARLY INFLUENCES 

contemplated the progress of his rival with hatred and aver- 
sion. The dignit}^ affability, and kindness of Mr. Falkland 
were the subject of everybody's praise, and all this was an 
insupportable torment to Tyrrel. 

Emily Melville, TyrreFs cousin, who lived with him, falls 
in love with Falkland and consequently incurs her patron's 
displeasure. He resolved to impose an uncouth, boorish youth 
on her as a husband. She is imprisoned in her room for 
refusing, and is saved from a diabolical plot to ruin her 
through the timely assistance of Falkland. Wliile still de- 
lirious and suffering from tlie ill-treatment of her persecutor, 
Emily was arrested and cast into prison by Tyrrel for a 
debt contracted for board and lodging during the last four- 
teen years. Death liberated her soon afterwards from the 
persecutions of her cousin. 

One of TjTreFs tenants, Mr. Hawkins, incurred his master's 
displeasure, and he and his family were turned out of house 
and home. The laws and customs of the country are used to 
oppress the victims. Tenants must be kei)t in their places. 
The presumption is that tlicy are in the wrong, and so the 
unscrupulous Tyrrel had no difficulty in imprisoning the son. 
Shelley says : "That in questions of property there is a vague 
but most effective favoritism in courts of law, and, among 
lawyers, against the poor to the advantage of the rich — 
against the tenant in favour of the landlord — against the 
creditor in favour of the debtor." (Prose, Vol. 11, p. 326.) 
Falkland remonstrated with Tyrrel for this piece of injustice, 
but this served only to increase Tyrrel's hatred of him. At 
length the crisis came. Tyrrel is driven out of a rural as- 
sembly by Falkland. He returned soon afterwards, struck 
Falkland, felled him to the earth, and kicked him in the pres- 
ence of all. Falkland was disgraced, and to him divSgrace was 
worse than death. "He was too deeply pervaded with the 
idle and groundless romances of chivalry ever to forget the 
situation, humiliating and dishonourable according to his idea, 
in which he had been placed upon this occasion. To be 
knocked down, cuffed, kicked, dragged along the floor! Sacred 
heaven, the memory of such a treatment was not to be en- 
dured." Next morning Mr. Tyrrel was found dead in the 



EARLY INFLUENCES 29 

street, having been murdered at a short distance from the 
assembly-house. That day marked the beginning of that mel- 
ancholy which pursued Falkland in after years. The public 
disgrace and chastisement that had been imposed upon him 
were not the whole of the mischief that happened to the 
unfortunate Falkland. It was rumored that he was the 
murderer of his antagonist. He was examined by the neigh- 
boring magistrates and acquitted. It was absurd to imagine 
that a man of such integrity should commit such an atrocious 
crime. Suspicion then fell on the Hawkinses. They were 
tried, condemned, and afterwards executed. From thence- 
forward the habits of Falkland became totally different. He 
now became a rigid recluse. Everj^body respected him because 
of his benevolence, but his stately coldness and reserve made 
it imijossible for those about him to regard him with the 
familiarity of affection. 

Caleb Williams turned all these particulars over and over 
in his mind and began to suspect that Falkland was the real 
murderer of Tyrrel. His curiosity became an overpowering 
passion which was ultimately the cause of all his misfor- 
tunes. Falkland realizes that his secretary is convinced of 
his guilt, so he determines to silence hira forever. He calls 
Williams into his room and confesses his guilt to him. Falk- 
land said that he allowed the innocent Hawkinses to die be- 
cause he could not sacrifice his fame. He would leave behind 
him a spotless and illustrious name even should it be at the 
expense of the death and misery of others. He then told Caleb 
that if ever an unguarded word escaped from his lips he would 
pay for it by his death or worse. This secret was a constant 
source of torment to Williams. Every trifling incident made 
Falkland suspicious and consequently increased the misery of 
his secretary. At length Caleb flees, but is taken back, falsely 
accused of theft, and cast into prison. In all this Falkland 
contrives to manage things so as to increase his reputation for 
benevolence. Williams is made to appear an ungrateful 
wretch. The impotence of the law to secure justice to the weak 
is only equalled by the wretchedness of the prisons to which 
they are condemned. ''Thank God," exclaims the Englishman, 
"we have no Bastile! Thank God with us no man can be 



30 EARLY INFLUENCES 

punished without a crime!" "Unthinking wretch!" writes 
Godwin, "'Is that a country of liberty, where thousands lan- 
guish in dungeons and fetters? (Jo, go, ignorant fool! and 
visit the scenes of our prisons. Witness their unwholesome- 
ness, their filth, the tyranny of their governors, the misery of 
their inmates ! After that show me the man shameless enough 
to triumph, and say 'England has no Bastile!' Is there any 
charge so frivolous, upon which men are not consigned to those 
detested abodes? Is there any villainy that is not practiced 
by justices and prosecutors, etc. ?" 

Williams tries to escape from prison and is caught in the 
attempt. He was then treated more cruelly than ever. He 
made another attempt to escape and was successful. The 
rest of the novel is taken up with an account of all that 
Williams suffered in his endeavors to keep out of the reach 
of the law. He falls in with a band of outlaws whose rude 
natural virtues are contrasted with the meanness and cor- 
ruption of the officers of the law. He is at last caught, but 
Falkland, to make himself appear magnanimous, does not 
press the charge against ^A^]liams. Instead he persecutes 
Caleb by poisoning people's minds against him. Everywhere 
Caleb goes he is followed h\ an emissary of Falkland who 
contrives to convince people tliat Williams is an ungrateful 
scoundrel. He can stand tlie persecution no longer and so 
determines to accuse Falkland of the murder of Tyrrel. Wil- 
liams does this in a way to carry conviction to his hearers. 
Falkland finally breaks down, throws himself into Williams' 
arms, saying, "All my prospects are concluded. All that I 
most ardently desired is forever frustrated. I have spent a 
life of the basest cruelty to cover one act of momentary vice, 
and to protect myself against the prejudice of my species. . . . 
And now (turning to the magistrates) do with me as you 
please. If, however, you wish to punisli me, you must be 
speedy in your justice; for, as reputation was the blood that 
warmed my heart, so I feel that death and infamy must seize 
me together.'' He survived this event but three days. "A 
nobler spirit than Falkland's," Godwin writes, "lived not 
among the sons of men. Thy intellectual powers were truly 
sublime, and thy bosom burned with a godlike ambition. But 



EARLY INFLUENCES 31 

of what use are talents and sentiments in the corrupt wilder- 
ness of human society? It is a rank and rotten soil, from 
which exevy finer shrub draws poison as it grows. Falkland! 
thou enteredst upon thy career with the purest and most 
laudable intentions. But thou imbibest the poison of chivalry 
with thy earliest youth; and the base and low-minded envy 
that met thee on thy return to thy native seats, operated with 
this poison to hurry thee into madness. . . ." All these evils 
flow from Falkland's standard of morals — and his is the 
aristocratic, traditional one. He is the victim of the false 
ideal of chivalry. The errors of Falkland, Shelley writes, 
"sprang from a high though perverted conception of human 
nature, from a powerful sympathy with his species and from 
a temper, which led him to believe that the very reputation 
of excellence should walk among mankind unquestioned and 
unassailed." 

Protests against this condition of affairs were not wanting, 
it is true, but they did not influence men to any great extent. 
Cowper, for example, criticizes most severely the luxury and 
vices of his age. 

Rank abundance breeds 
In gross and pampered cities, sloth and lust 
And wantonness and gluttonous excess. 

He deplores the corruption in church and state, and pleads 
for a return to religion. In the Progress of Error he pictures 
Occidius as 

A cassock'd huntsman and a fiddling priest. 
Himself a wanderer from the narrow way, 
His silly sheep, what wonder if they stray. 

Although he lashes the follies of his time in TJw Task, Table 
Talk, and Expostulation, still he does not attack tlie institu- 
tions of his country with the vehemence characteristic of later 
writers. His poems are a mild expression of the revolutionary 
spirit that was then gathering strength. 

At a very early age Shelley showed signs of hatred for 
existing institutions. These became more pronounced as he 
grew older, until they finally blazed forth in Queen Mab 
in 1813. This poem is considered by some to be merely a 



32 RAULY INFLUENCES 

declamatory pamphlet iu verse. Shelley himself described it 
at one time as "villainous trash." Like a true radical he 
gathers u]) all the evils of society, its crimes, miserj^, and op- 
pression, and feels them so keenly that he makes them part 
of his own being. This collected lightning he discharged in 
one awful flash in Queen Mah. 

The first two parts of this poem bear a striking resemblance 
to Volney's Lcs Ruines.-* Tn Queen Mah a fairy descends and 
takes up lanthe's soul to heaven that she mixy see how to ac- 
comydish the great end for which she lives, and that she may. 
taste that peace which in the end all life will share. lanthe 
merited this boon because she vanquished earth's pride and 
meanness and burst "the icy chains of custom." Volney's 
traveler is likewise disengaged from his body and conveyed to 
the upper regions by a Genius. Many consolations await him 
there as a reward for his unselfishness and desires for the 
happiness of mankind. The earth is plainly visible to both 
Volney's traveler and Shelley's spirit, lanthe, and its throng- 
ing thousands seem like an ant-hill's citizens. Volney's trav- 
eler sees but a few remains of the hundred cities which once 
flourished in Syria. All this destruction was caused by cupid- 
ity. In the same way the Spirit of lanthe finds that from 
England's fertile fields to the burning plains where Libyan 
monsters dwell — 

Thou canst not find one spot 
Whereon no city stood. — Cunto II. 

lanthe thanks the fairy for this vision of the past and says 
that from it she will glean a warning for the future 

So that man 

>ray ])rofit by his errors and derive 

Experience from his folly. 

Volney's traveler wonders that past experience has not taught 
mankind a lesson, and that destruction is not a thing of the 
past. The Spirit, in Queen Mah, is shown the miserable life 
that kings live. They have no peace of mind; even their 
"slumbers are but varied agonies." They are heartless 



"Cf. Hancock. French Revolution and English Poets, p. 56. 



EARLY INFLUENCES 33 

wretches whose ears are deaf to the shrieks of penury. The 
fairy says that kings and parasites arose — 

From vice, black loathsome vice: 

From rapine, madness, treachery, and wrong. 

This is somewhat stronger than Volney's dictum that paternal 
tyranny laid the foundations of political despotism. Canto 
IV of Queen MaJ) contains a description of the horrors of war. 
In Les Ruines there is an account of the war between Russia 
and Turkey. Both attribute this horrible evil to cupidity, ''the 
daughter and companion of ignorance." Volney's traveler is 
then vouchsafed a glimpse of the "new age" when Equality, 
Liberty, and Justice will reign supreme. The final chapters 
of Les Ruines describe a disputation between the doctors of 
different religions, which ends in convincing the people that 
all religions are false. The ministers of the various sects 
contradict and refute one another, opposing revelations to 
revelations and miracles to miracles, until they sender it evi- 
dent that they are all deceived or deceivers. Man himself is 
to blame for having been duped. Religion exists because man 
is superstitious and tolerates the imposition of priests. "Thus, 
agitated by their own passions, men, whether in their individ- 
ual capacity, or as collective bodies, always rapacious and 
improvident passing from tyranny to slavery, from pride to 
abjectness, from presumption to despair, have been them- 
selves the eternal instruments of their misfortunes."-'^ In 
the notes to Queen Mob, Shelley says that as ignorance of 
nature gave birth to gods the knowledge of nature is cnlculated 
to destroy them. 

But now contempt is mocking thy gray hairs ; 

Thou art descending to the darksome grave 

Unhonored and uiii)itied, but by those 

Whose pride is passing by like Ihiue, 

And sheds like tliiue a ghtre tliat fades before the snn 

(^f Truth, and shines but \n the dreadful night 

That long has lowered above tlie ruined world.-'' 

The third part of Queen Mah contains a glowing picture of 
the Golden Age — of the world as it will be, when reason will 



"Chapter XI. p. 66. 
"Canto VI. p. 23. 



34 



EARLY INFLUENCES 



be the sole guide of men. For this Shelley is indebted mainly 
to Godwin's Political Justice. 

For his denunciation of the professions Shelley is indebted 
to the Essay on ''Trades and Professions" in Godwin's 
Enquirer. With regard to commerce, Godwin says that the 
introduction of barter and sale into society was followed by 
vice and misery. ''Barter and sale being once introduced, the 
invention of a circulating medium in the precious metals 
gave solidity to the evil, and afforded a field upon which for 
the rapacity and selfishness of man to develop all their refine- 
ments."" Shelley says : 

Commerce has set the mark of selfishness 
The signet of its all-enslaving power 
Upon a shining ore, and called it gold." 

Godwin expresses his opinion of merchants as follows: 
"There is no being on the face of the earth with a heart more 
thoroughly purged from every remnant of the weakness of 
benevolence and sympathy.^^s 

And Shelley writes : 

Commerce! beneath wliose poison-breathing shade 
No solitary virtue dares to spring. 

Shelley says that soldiers — 

. . . are the hired bravos who defend 
The tyrant's throne — the bullies of his fear : 
These are the sinks and channels of worst vice, 
The refuse of society, the dregs 
Of all that is most vile, etc. 

His note on this passage was taken bodily from Essay V 
of Godwin's Enquirer. With regard to clergymen, Shelley ex- 
presses his opinion thus : 

Then grave and hoary-headed hypocrites 
Without a hope, a passion, or a love 
Who, through a life of luxury and lies 
Have crept by flattery to the" seats of power 
Support the system whence their honors flow 

Godwin's verdict is not so severe. "Clergymen," he says, 
"are timid in enquiry, prejudiced in opinion, cold, formal, 

"Queen Mab. 

^The Enquirer, p. 174. 



EARLY INFLUENCES 35 

the slave of what other men may think of them, rude, dicta- 
torial, impatient of contradiction, harsh in their censures, and 
illiberal in their judgments. 

Queen Mab then is a fierce diatribe against existing institu- 
tions. It contains very little constructive philosophy. What 
value has it for mankind? Does it serve any purpose apart 
from giving pleasure to the aesthetic faculties? It assuredly 
does. It awakens the social conscience. The first step for the 
sinner on the road to conversion is to try to realize the sinful 
state of his soul. The same is true of a nation in need of 
reform. Unless its shortcomings are vividly brought home 
to it, reformation will never take place. To do this was and 
still is the work of Queen Mob. It laid bare the weaknesses 
of State and Church; it engendered the spirit of compassion 
and thus paved the way for reform. 



CHAPTER II 

VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 

In September, 1813, Shelley wrote a sonnet, already quoted, 
to lanthe, his first child, in which he says that the babe was 
dear to him not only for its own sweet sake, but for the 
mother's, and that the mother had grown dearer to him for 
the babe's. Hogg informs us, however, that about this time the 
ardor of Shelley's affection for his wife was beginning to cool. 
It is scarcely correct to speak of the ardor of his affection, 
for it may be doubted that he ever loved Harriet very ardently. 
If he had been seriously in love with his wife, he would not 
have written Miss Hitchener two months after his marriage 
that he loved her ''more than any relation," and that she was 
the sister of his soul.'^" However this may be, it is certain 
that in 1814 Shelley and his wife did not get along well 
together. Harriet was beautiful and amiable, and adopted in 
a somewhat parrot-like manner the views of her husband. As 
she grew older she no doubt developed tastes more in keep- 
ing with the conventions of that society which Shelley de- 
tested. Professor Dowden suggests that motherhood pro- 
duced in her character a change that did not harmonize with 
her husband's idealism. She was no longer an ardent school- 
girl, but a woman who has found out that one must grapple 
with the realities of life in some way more practical than the 
one hitherto followed. Her sister urged her to look for the 
style and elegance suitable to the wife of a prospective baronet. 
This was repugnant to Shelley's republican simplicity. "I 
have often thought," Peacock writes, ''that, if Harriet had 
nursed her own child, and if the sister had not lived with 
them, the link of their married life would not have been so 
readily broken." Harriet sympathized less and less with her 
husband's aspirations, and as a consequence Shelley turned 
to other women for the encouragement and inspiration which 
he once got from his wife. He spent too much of his time 
in the company of the Newtons, Boinvilles, and Turners to 



"Letter, Oct. 10, 1811. Ingpen, p. 142. 
.S6 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 37 

render possible the retention of his wife's affections. On Marcli 
16, 1814, Shelley wrote a letter to Hogg, which plainly shows 
that he found no happiness in his home. "I have been staying 
with Mrs. Boinville for the last month; I have escaped, in 
the society of all that friendship and philosophy combine, 
from the dismaying solitude of myself. ... I have sunk into 
a premature old age of exhaustion . . . Eliza is still with us — 
not here! — but (with his wife) ... I certainly hate her with 
all my heart and soul." Shelley's second marriage in St. 
George's Church, on March 22, does not throw any light on 
the relations that existed between himself and his wife. They 
celebrated this second ceremony simply to dispel all doubts 
concerning the validity of the first one in Edinburgh. On 
April 18, Mrs. Boinville wrote to Hogg that Shelley was at 
her house, that Harriet had gone to town (presumably to her 
father's), and that Eliza was living at Southampton. J. C. 
Jeafferson says that it was Shelley who deserted Harriet and 
not Harriet, Shelley. According to this biographer, Shelley 
left her at Binfield on May 18, 1814." Shelley still hoped to 
regain his wife's love, and in some verses inscribed, '"To Har- 
riet, 1814," he appeals pathetically for lier affection. Harriet 
had become cold and proud, and refused to meet his advances 
toward a reconciliation. Her pride, Shelley believed, was 
incompatible with virtue. When he found that he had "clasped 
a shadow," his anguish, oM'ing to his great sensitiveness, was 
extreme. Other men put up with their wives' imperfections, 
and why could not Shelley have done the same? It must be 
remembered, though, that these men have other interests to 
occupy their thoughts, and other friends to give them the 
sympathy and love denied them at home. This was not the 
case with Shelley. He had few friends and many enemies. 
It should not surprise us then to find him snatching at the 
first vision "which promised him the longed-for boon of human 
love." This vision appeared to him in the person of Mary 
Godwin. 

A letter from Harriet to Hookham, dated July 7, shows 
that she was anxious to be with her husband again. But the 
time for reconciliation had passed. Whenever Shelley hated 



'The Real Shelley, Vol. II, p. 217. 



38 VIEWS ox MARRIAGE AND LOVB 

or loved anybody, he did so intensely. l']verybotly was either 
au angel or a devil; and Harriet had ceased to be an angel. 
"Lilies that fester sniell far worse than weeds." l>owden 
says Shelley persnaded himself that Harriet was false to him 
and had given her heart to a Mr. Ryan. There is no gronnd 
for the charge of nnfaithfnlness, as Peacock, Thornton Hnnt, 
and Trelawny bear testimony concerning her innocence. 

Shelley believed that Harriet had ceased to love him, and 
that he was conseqnently free to contract a nnion with an- 
other. He puts forth this doctrine in the notes to Queen Mah. 
"A husband and wife ought to continue so long united as 
they love each other. . . . There is nothing immoral in this 
separation. . . . The conviction that wedlock is indissoluble 
holds out the strongest of all temptations to the perverse. . . . 
Prostitution is the legitimate offspring of marriage.'' He 
considered marriage a useless institution, and expressed this 
view in St. Irvrjne. "Say, Kloise, do not you think it an insult 
to two souls, united to each other in the irrefragable covenants 
of love and congeniality, to promise in the sight of a Being 
whom they know not. that fidelity which is certain other- 
wise.'' He does not think tliat promiscuous intercourse will 
follow the abolition of marriage. Love, and not money, hon- 
ors, or convenience will be tlie bond of these unions when 
marriage is abolished, and this will result in more faithfulness 
than obtains at present. "The parties having acted upon 
selection are not likely to forget this selection when the inter- 
view is over.'"*- In his review of Hogg's Memoirs of Prince 
Alexij Haimatoff, Shelley regards with horror the recommenda- 
tion of the tutor to Alexy to indulge in promiscuous inter- 
course. "It is our duty to protest against so pernicious and 
disgusting an opinion." lu a letter to Hogg, written after 
the latter's attempt to seduce Harriet, we find the following: 
"But do not love one (Harriet) who can not return it, wlio if 
she could, ought to stiffle her desire to do so. Love is not 
a whirlwind that is unvanquishable.'' 

Shelley's views on marriage agree with those of Godwin. 
They both looked on marriage as a human institution, and 
consequently thought it might be modified or abolished en- 
"Quoted in Shelley mid die frauen, Maurer. 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 39 

tireh'. Thej' considered happiness man's highest good, and 
nnhappiness man's only evil. Vows and promises are immoral 
because the thing promised may prove at any time detrimental 
to one's happiness. For this reason husband and wife should 
not bind themselves to live always together. This doctrine 
appealed to Shelley because it agreed with his views on free- 
dom and his passion for opposing the traditions of society. 

Heretofore it has been found convenient to lay the blame 
for all the radical views of Shelley *at the door of Godwin. 
In the case of those on marriage a good deal of the blame 
must be borne by Sir James Lawrence. 

In a letter to Lawrence, dated August 17, 1812, Shelley 
writes: "Your Empire of the Naircs, which 1 read this spring, 
succeeded in making me a perfect convert to its doctrines. I 
then retained no doubts of the evils of marriage — Mrs. Woll- 
stonecraft reasons too well for that — but I had been dull 
enough not to perceive the greatest argument against it, until 
developed in the Naires, prostitution both legal and illegal." 
Hogg says that Shelley and his young friends read Lawrence's 
tale with delight.^^ This work, intended to vindicate the rights 
of women, is a plea for free love. It pictures the Kingdom 
of the Naires as a Paradise of Love, where neither jealousy 
nor envy, quarreling nor hatred, have any place. Infanticide 
and the sufferings that follow in the wake of illicit inter- 
course are there unknown. "It would be unjust to conclude," 
Lawrence writes, "that every voluntary union would be short- 
lived." He claims that, although constancy is no merit in 
itself, still it obtains in the Kingdom of the Naires to a greater 
extent than in Europe. "Know ye not tliat though constancy 
is no merit it is a source of happiness ; and that though incon- 
stancy is no crime, it is no blessing much less a boast."'* 
There is some resemblance between this and the following from 
Shelley's Notes to Queen Mah: "Constancy has nothing vir- 
tuous in itself independently of the pleasure it confers, and 
partakes of the temporizing spirit of vice in proportion as it 
endures tamely moral defects of magnitude in the object of its 
indiscreet choice." In another place Lawrence writes : "Two 



^Hogg's Life, p. 447. 

'The Naires, book 8, p. 130. 



40 VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 

hearts whom love with its loadstone has touched, will stick 
together, nought will tear asunder. But soon as the magnetic 
power has ceased, say, why should wedlock link in iron fetters, 
superfluous even when they are not vexatious, those bodies 
which the soul of love has left?"^"^ In the notes to Queen Mah 
we read — "A husband and wife ought to continue so long 
united as they love each other; any law which should bind 
them to cohabitation for one moment after the decay of their 
affection would be a most intolerable tyranny, and the most 
unworthy of toleration. "^^"^ ''Among the Naires there are 
neither courtesans nor virgins, for the two extremes are equally 
unnatural and equally detrimental to the state. Love there 
shuns not the light of the sun, nor is it, as in Europe, degraded 
as a vice, nor allied to infamy and guilt." 

Shelley lived at a time when the marriage ideal was not held 
in high repute. Lawrence describes many kinds of abominable 
travesties of marriage. In Persia, to silence the scruples of 
the lustful, "they have contrived contracts of enjoyment (for 
it would be wicked to call them contracts of marriage) for 
very short periods of time; these are formally signed and 
countersigned, and manj' i>riests gain their livelihood by giv- 
ing their benediction to this orthodox prostitution."^^ Mar- 
riage was a mere formality for a great man3\ In France, 
Montesquieu writes, "a husband, who would wish to keep his 
wife to himself, would be considered a disturber of the public 
happiness, and as a madman who would monopolise the light 
of the sun. He who loves his own wife, is one who is not 
agreeable enough to gain the affections of any other man's 
wife, who takes advantage of a law to make amends for his 
own want of amiability; and who contributes, as far as lies 
in his power, to overturn a tacit convention, that is conducive 
to the happiness of both sexes."^^ In England conditions were 
no better. A husband might consort with as many Avomen 
as he chose and his wife could get no redress. In Italy and 
Spain, the inhabitants, ''too fond of liberty to respect the 
duties of marriage and too attached to their names to suffer 



"Book VI, p. 239. 

"P. 797. 

"Book XI cf. Chardius Travels in Persia. 

"Persian Letters. Letter 55. 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 41 

their extinction, require only representatives, and not sons 
as their heirs. It is a pity that the Naire system is not 
known to them ; but cieesbeism is a palliative to marriage and 
an ingenious compromise between family pride and natural 
independence, and it is better to be inconsistent and happy 
than unhapp3^ and rational."^^ 

In no country of Europe is the marriage vow kept. Why 
not then, argued Shelley, abolish this institution which makes 
hypocrites of men? ''Marriage is the tomb of love. . . . Two 
lovers only meet when in good humor, or when resolved to be 
so; a married couple think themselves entitled to torment 
each other with their ill-humors. When a lover presents a 
trifle to his beloved, she receives it with smiles; when a hus- 
band makes a present to his wife, which indeed happens sel- 
dom enough, he runs the risk of being told that he has no 
taste, or that she could have bought it cheaper."**' 

The Empire of the Naires is not so much an exposition of 
the free-love system of the Naires as a grossly distorted and 
exaggerated picture of the miseries tliat follow from the pres- 
ent system of regulating the relations between the sexes in 
the different countries of the world. Lawrence draws horrible 
pictures of misery, degratlation, and even murder that are 
a consequence of our opinions on love and marriage. ''When- 
ever women are treated like slaves," he writes, "they act 
like slaves with artifice and hypocricy."*^ Shelley affirms 
that "the present system of constraint does no more, in the 
majority of instances, than make hypocrites of open enemies."*- 

Lawrence attributes the social evil to the existing code of 
moralit^^^ If a girl falls, she is driven from her home, and 
the only road then open to her is that which leads to the 
brothel. "Prostitution," says Shelley, "is the legitimate off- 
spring of marriage and its accompanying errors. Women for 
no other crime than having followed the dictates of a natural 
appetite are driven with fury from the comforts and sympa- 
thies of society. Society avenges herself on the criminals of 
her own creation."*^ 



"Naires, Book X, p. 65. 

'"Book X, p. 86. 

'^The Naires, Book VIII, p. 108. 

"Notes to Queen Mob. 

"Ibid. 



42 VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 

It does not seem that Shelley made much use of the plot or 
rather of the dififerent incidents of the Empire of the 
Naires. However, it may not be amiss to indicate the slight 
resemblance that exists between the story of Margaret Mont- 
gomery and that of Rosalind in Rosalind and Helen. 

Rosalind loves a young man whom she is about to marry- 
On the day fixed for the wedding, her father returns from 
a distant land to die, and informs them that Rosalind and 
her lover are brother and sister. 

Hold, hold ! 

He cried ! I tell thee 'tis her brother ! 

Thy mother, boy, beneath the sod 

Of yon churchyard rests in her shroud so cold; 

I am now weak and pale, and old : 

We were once dear to one another, 

I and that corpse ! Thou art our child ! 

Her betrothed falls dead on the receipt of this news. Rosa- 
lind marries another who uses her very cruelly, perhaps be- 
cause she gives birth to an illegitimate child. Her husband 
dies, and his will, because she was adulterous. 

Imported, that if e'er again 
I sought my children to behold 

Or in my birthplace did remain 

Beyond three days, whose hours were told, 

They should inherit naught: 

In The Xaires Margaret Montgomery and James Forbes had 
known and loved each other from childhood. Shortly before 
the time set for their wedding, James' father sent a letter 
to Margaret's father breaking off the marriage in the most 
positive terms. The latter's pride was inflamed, and a quarrel 
ensued in which Forbes was mortally wounded. The dying 
man sent for Margaret and told her that she and her lover are 
sister and brother, that he and not Montgomery was her 
father, and hence her mother's and his opposition to the 
marriage. Margaret is enceinte, and her reputed father turns 
her out of doors. Her lover is killed in Naples. A friend 
sends Margaret some money during her staj' in London. Shel- 
ley makes Rosalind, who has been dispossessed too, receive 
some monev from an old servant. 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 43 

Kosalind and Margaret are separated from their life-long 
friends who know — 

What to the evil world is due 
And therefore sternly did refuse 
to link themselves with the infamy of ones so lost as their 
sinning sisters. In both cases common misery reunites them 
and their friends again. 

In May or June, 1814, Shelley became acquainted with Mary 
Godwin. Her father described her as being "singularly bold, 
somewhat imperious, and active in mind ; her desire of knowl- 
edge is great, and her perseverance in everything she under- 
takes almost invincible." She was brought up in an atmos- 
phere of free thought, having spent most of her girlhood with 
Mr. Baxter, a faithful disciple of Godwin. Shelley and Mary 
liad many sympathies in common, and it is not surprising to 
find them soon falling in love with each other. 

Peacock tells us that Shelley at this time was in agony. On 
the one hand he was tormented by his desire to treat Harriet 
rightly, and on the other by his passion for Mary. Passion 
won the day, and on July 28 Shelley eloped with Mary to the 
(Continent. He tried to ease his conscience by offering Har- 
riet his friendship and protection. He wrote her from the 
Continent and urged her to join himself and Mary in Switzer- 
land. He assured her that she would find in him a firm, 
constant friend to whom her interests would be always dear. 

While passing judgment on Shelley one should not forget 
that he simply put into practice those doctrines which he be- 
lieved to be true. Neither Shelley nor Mary thought they were 
inflicting any wrong on Harriet as long as they offered her 
their friendship and protection. 

In September, 1814, Shelley, Mary and Jane Clairmont, 
Mary's half-sister, settled in London. About this time he was 
troubled a great deal with money embarrassments and was in 
continual hiding from the bailiffs. Toward the end of the 
year he read "the tale of Godwin's American disciple in 
romance, Charles Brockden Brown."" "Brown's four novels," 
says Peacock, "Schiller's Bobbers, and Goethe's Faust, were 
of all the works with which he was familiar those which 
took the deepest root in Shelley's mind and had the strongest 
influence in the formation of his character." 



♦Dowden : Life of Shelley, Vol. I, p. 472. 



44 VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 

Brown's most important novel, Wirland, is a grnesome tale 
in which the horrors portrayed owe their existence to the 
errors of the sufferers. Wieland, a very religions man, 
is deceived by an unscrupulous ventriloquist who persuades 
him that a voice from heaven bids him sacrifice the life of his 
wife and four children. "If Wieland had framed juster 
notions of moral duty, and of the divine attributes; or if 
he had been gifted with ordinary equanimity or foresight, the 
double tongued deceiver would have been baffled and repelled." 
This is the doctrine of Shelley; he believed that the evils of 
society were man's own creation. 

Ye princes of the earth, ye sit aghast 
Amid the ruin which yourselves have made, 
Yes, Desolation heard your trumpet's blast. 
And sprang from sleep.*"* 

Brown's views on love are almost as radical as those of 
Godwin. Wieland's sister is in love with Pleyel, and is anx- 
ious to act in such a way as to give him hope and at the 
same time not to appear too forward. ''Time was," she says, 
''when tliese emotions would be hidden with immeasurable 
solicitu<le from every human eye. Alas! these airy and fleeting 
impulses of shame are gone. My scruples were preposterous 
and criminal. They are bred in all hearts, by a perverse and 
vicious education, and they would have maintained their 
place in my heart had not my portion been set in misery. !iMy 
errors have taught me thus much wisdom ; that those senti- 
ments which we ought not to disclose it is criminal to har- 
bor.''*" Shelley's ideal woman would hold the same views. He 
writes : 

And women too, frank, beautiful and kind . . . 
. . . From custom's evil taint exempt and pure 
Speaking the wisdom once they could not think. 
Looking emotions once they feared to feel. 
And changed to all whidi once tliey dared not be 
Yet, being now, made earth like heaven. 

In May, 1816, Shelley, accompanied by Mary and eTane Clair- 
mont, started for Italy. It is probable that the undesirable 
state of Shelley's health, together with the constant begging 



'The Revolt of Islam. Canto XI, at. 15. 
•Page 74. 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 45 

of Godwin, determined them to leave England. J. C, Jeaffer- 
son maintains that Miss Clairmont persuaded Shelley to accom- 
pany her to Geneva, where she was to meet Lord Byron. It is 
quite certain though that Mary and Shelley were ignorant of 
Byron's intrigue with Miss Clairmont. The most that can be 
said is that Jane's solicitations may have hastened their 
departure. 

In September, 1816, the Shelleys returned to London. About 
a month afterwards news reached them tliat Fanny Imlay 
(Mary's half-sister) had committed suicide. It is said that 
love for Shelley drove her to despair. In December Shelley 
was seeking for Harriet, of whom he had lost trace some time 
previously. On December 10, her body was found in the Ser- 
pentine. Very little is known of the life she led after her 
separation from Shelley. Buiuor had it that she drank heavily 
and became the mistress of a soldier, who deserted her. 

It may be that ''in all Shelley did, he, at the time of doing 
it, believed himself justified to his own conscience," but surely 
that conscience is warped which finds no cause for remorse 
in Shelley's treatment of his first wife. No one can view his 
self-complacency and assumption of righteousness at this time 
without feelings of detestation. On the day he heard the 
news of his wife's suicide he wrote to Mary: "Everything 
tends to prove, however, that beyond the shock of so hideous 
a catastrophe having fallen on a human being once so nearly 
connected with me, there would in any case, have been little 
to regret." "Little to regret" save the shock to his nerves. 
What about the suffering of the poor woman that forced 
her to commit such a terrible deed? 

Shelley claimed his children from the Westbrooks, but the 
claim was denied. The children were committed to the care 
of a Dr. Hume, of Hanwell. Lord Eldon gave his judgment 
against Shelley on the ground that Shelley's opinions led to 
immoral conduct. Shelley gave vent to his rage in sixteen 
vitriolic stanzas, which he addressed to the Lord Chancellor. 

During his residence at Marlow- on the Thames in 1817, 
Shelley wrote The Revolt of Islam, which was first published 
under the title Laon and Cythna. In its first form it contained 
violent attacks on theism and Christianity; and the hero and 



46 VIKWS l>.\ MAKUIAGE AND LOVE 

heroine were brother and sister. Oilier refused to publish it 
unless everything indicating such a relationship were removed, 
and Shelley reluctantly consented to make the necessary 
alterations. 

The Ixcrolt of Jshun opens with an allegorical myth in which 
the strife between a serpent and an eagle — good and evil — is 
described. While the poet sympathizes with the snake, a 
mysterious woman (Asia in Prometheus l^nbound) suddenly 
appears and conducts him to heaven. There he meets Laon 
and Cythna who recount the sufiferings which made them 
worthy of this heavenly place. First of all. Laon tells about 
his love for Cythna, who is described as a shape of brightness 
moving upon the earth. She mourned with him over the 
servitude — 

In which the half of humankind were mewed, 

\ ictims of lust and liate, the shives of slaves, 

She mourned that grace and power were thrown as food 

To the hyena lust, who, among graves. 

Over his loathed meal, laughing in agony raves.*' 

Cythna determines to make all good and just. By the force of 
kindness she will "disenchant the captives," and "then millions 
of slaves shall leap in joy as the benumbing cramp of ages shall 
leave their limbs." The happiness of the lovers was rudely in- 
terrupted. Cythna is taken away by the emissaries of the 
tyrant Othman ; and Laon. who killed three of the king's slaves 
while defending her, is cast into prison. A hermit sets him 
free, conveys him to an island, and supports him there for 
seven years. During all of this time Laon's mind is deranged. 
He recovers, however, and then they both embark to help over- 
throw the tyrant Othman. The revolutionists are successful 
principally because of the intluence of their leader, who is a 
woman, Laone. Such is the strength of her quiet words that 
none dare harm lier. Tyrants send their armed slaves to 
quell — 

Her power, they, even like a thundevgust 

Caught by some forest, bend beneath the spell 

Of that young maiden's speech, and to their chiefs rebel.** 



"Canto II. St. 36. 
"Canto IV. St. 20. 



VIEW8 ON MARRIAGE AND LOVK 47 

Some of the revolutionists demand that Othman be put to 
death for his crimes. Laon interposes and tells them that if 
their hearts are tried in the true love of freedom they should 
cease to dread this one poor lonely man. Here is Godwin's 
doctrine again: 

The chastened will 
Of virtue sees that justice is the light 
Of love, and not revenge and terror and despite.*'^ 

That same night the tyrant with the aid of a foreign army 
treacherously attacks the revolutionists. In the midst of the 
carnage 

A black Tartarian horse of giant frame 
Comes trampling o'er the dead; the living bleed 
Beneath the hoofs of that tremendous steed 
On which like to an angel robed in white 
Sate one waving a sword.'" 

Needless to say, this is Cythna who comes to rescue Laon. 
They both flee to a lonely ruin where they recount to each other 
the stories of their sufferings. Cythna tells that she was 
carried to a submarine cavern by order of the tyrant, and that 
she was fed there by an eagle. She became a mother, and was 
comforted for a while by the caresses of her child until it 
mysteriously disappeared. An earthquake changed the posi- 
tion of the cavern, and Cythna is rescued by some passing 
sailors. She in taken to the city of Othman, where she leads 
the revolutionists as described in the previous cantos. Want 
and pestilence follow in the wake of massacre, and cause awful 
misery. An Iberian priest in whose breast "hate and guile lie 
watchful" says that God will not stay the plague until a pyre 
is built and Laon and Cythna burned upon it. An immense 
reward is offered for their capture. The person who brings 
them both alive shall espouse the princess and reign with the 
king. A stranger comes to the tyrant's court and tells them 
that they themselves have made all the desolation which they 
bewail. However, he cannot expect them to change their ways 
80 he promises to betray Laon if they will only allow Cythna 
to go to America. The tyrant agrees to the stranger's terms, 



"Canto IV, at. 34. 
"Canto VI, St. IS. 



48 VIEWS ON MAUUIAGB AXP LOVE 

who then tells them that he is Laoii himself. He is placed upon 
the altar, and as the torches are about to be applied to it 
Cythua appears on her Tartarian steed. The priest urges his 
comrades to seize her, but the king has scruples about breaking 
his promise. She is set on the pyre, however, and both perish 
in the flames. They wake reclining — 

On the waved and golden sand 
Of a clear pool, upon a bank o'ertwiued 
With strange and star-bright flowers, which to the wind 
Breathed divine odour.^^ 

A boat approaches them with an angel (Cythna's child) in 
it. They are all carried in this "curved shell of hollow pearl" 
to a haven of rest and joy. 

This disconnected story serves as a vehicle to convey ex 
hortations regarding liberty and justice. Thus, during the 
voyage from the cavern to Othman's city, Cythna delivers an 
address to the sailors which contains some of the best passages 
in the poem. She tells them for example : 

To feel the peace of self -contentment's lot. 

To own all sympathies, and outrage none. 

And in the inmost bowers of sense and thought. 

Until life's sunny day is quite gone down. 

To sit and smile with Joy, or, not alone 

To kiss salt tears from the worn cheek of woe ; 

To live as if to love and live were one; 

This is not faith or law, nor those who bow 

To thrones on Heaven or Earth such destiny may know.^- 

The poem aims at kindling a virtuous enthusiasm for the 
doctrines of liberty and equal rights to all. "It is a series of 
pictures illustrating the growth and progress of individual 
mind aspiring after excellence" and the regeneration of 
humanity. Laon is the expression of ideal devotion to the 
happiness of mankind : and Cythna is a type of the new woman, 
"the free, equal, fearless companion of man." The poem 
depicts "the awakening of an immense nation from their 
slavery and degradation to a true sense of moral dignity and 
freedom; the tranquillity of successful patriotism and the uui- 



• Canto XII. 18. 
"Canto VIII. St. 12. 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 49 

vereal toleration and benevolence of true philanthropy." It 
concludes by showing that the triumph of oppression is tem- 
porary and a sure pledge of its inevitable fall. 

So much attention is here given to The Revolt of Islam be- 
cause of the influence on it of a love story — The Misniornxry, 
by Miss Owenson — an influence which up to the present has 
escaped the notice of Shelley students." In a letter to Hogg, 
dated June 27, 1811, Shelley writes "the only thing that has 
interested me, if 1 except your letters, has been one novel. It is 
Miss Owenson's Missionary, an Indian tale; will you read it? 
It is really a divine thing; Luxima, the Indian, is an angel. 
What a pity we cannot incorporate these creatures of fancy; 
the very thoughts of them thrill the soul! Since I have read 
this book, I have read no other."''* This tale is a very striking 
one, and it is not strange that Shelley made its philosophy his 
own. The descriptions are so vivid, the tale so simple, and the 
experiences recorded apparently so true, that it takes a ma- 
turer mind than Shelley's to lay bare the fallacies of the work 
and to unmask its half truths. No outline of the story can give 
an idea of its strength. In the beginning of the seventeenth 
century Hilarion Count d'Acugna of the royal house of 
Braganza joins the Franciscans, and on account of his zeal 
and piety is known as "the man without a fault." He is full 
of zeal for the salvation of souls and goes to India to convert 
pagans to Christianity. "Devoted to a higher communion his 
soul only stooped from heaven to earth, to relieve the suffer- 
ings he pitied, or to correct the errors he condemned ; to sub- 
stitute peace for animosity ... to watch, to pray, to fast, to 
suffer for all. Such was the occupation of a life, active as it 
was sinless." Passages like the above serve as sugar coating 
for the following: "Hitherto the life of the young monk 
resembled the pure and holy dream of saintly slumbers, for it 



""Toutes les sources de "Laon and Cythna" n'ont pas ete explorees: 
celles qui I'ont ete paraissent peu sQres et peu importantes: la ffite de 
la Federation du V e chant rappelle son module francais, et I'ideale 
peinture des Ruines de Volney; la grotte* on Cythna est enchatnee — 
comme la caverne d'Asia dans Promethee peut §tre due a un souvenir 
de The Cave of Fancy de Mary Wollstonecraft; les echos de Byron, 
et certains pretendent de I'lmaglnation de notre Delille semblent peu 
dlscernables." — Koszul, La Jeunesse de Shelley, 1910, p. 366. 

"Hogg's Life of Shelley, ed. 1906, p. 233. 



50 VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 

was still a dream; splendid indeed, but unsubstantial, dead 
to all those ties which constitute at once the charm and the 
anxiety of existence, which agitate while they bless the life of 
man, the spring of human affection lay untouched within his 
bosom and the faculty of human reason unused within his 
mind. . . , Yet these feelings though unexercised were not 
extinct; they betrayed their existence even in the torpid life 
he had chosen, etc." The missionary spends some time at 
Lahore studying the dialects of Upper India under the tutel- 
age of a Pundit. During his stay there the Guru of Cashmere 
comes to Lahore for the ceremony of Upaseyda. He is ac- 
companied by his beautiful and accomplished granddaughter, 
Luxima, the Prophetess and Brachmachira of Cashmere. 

The Pundit tells the missionary about the wonderful in- 
fluence that the Guru's granddaughter, Luxima, has over the 
people of the place, just as the old man of The Revolt of Islam, 
who represents Shelley's teacher. Dr. Lind, tells Laon about 
the extraordinary influence of Cythna on the people she meets. 
''The Indians of the most distinguished rank drew back as she 
approached lest their very breath should pollute that region 
of purity her respiration consecrated, and the odour of the 
sacred flowers, by which she was adorned, was inhaled with an 
eager devotion, as if it purified the soul it almost seemed to 
penetrate." The Pundit says that "her beauty, her enthusiasm, 
her graces, and her genius, alike capacitate her to propagate 
and support the errors of which she herself is the victim." The 
old man tells Laon tliat Cythna — 

Paves her path with human hearts, and o'er it flings 
The wildering gloom of her immeasurable wings. 

At the ceremony of LTpaseyda, which the Guru holds, dis- 
putants of various sects put forth the claims of their respective 
religions. ''A devotee of the Musuavi sect took the lead; he 
praised the mysteries of the Bhagavat, and explained the pro- 
found allegory of the six Kagas. ... A disciple of the 
Vedanti school spoke of the transports of mystic love, and 
maintained the existence of spirit only; while a follower of 
Buddha supported the doctrine of matter, etc." The mission- 
ary takes advantage of this opportunity to tell them about 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 51 

Christianity. "The impression of his appearance was decisive, 
it sank at once to the soul; and he imposed conviction on the 
senses, ere he made his claim on the understanding. . . , He 
ceased to speak and all was still as death. His hands were 
folded on his bosom, to which his crucifix was pressed; his 
eyes were cast in meekness on the earth; but the fire of his 
zeal still played like a ray from heaven on his brow." This 
reminds one at once of Canto IX, of The Revolt of Islam : 

And Oromaze, Joshua, and Mahomet, 

Moses and Buddah, Zerdhust and Brahm and Foh, 

A tumult of strange names, which never met 

Before, as watchwords of a single woe. 

Arose; each raging votary 'gan to throw 

Aloft his armed hands, and each did howl 

"Our God alone is God!" — And slaughter now 

Would have gone forth, when from beneath a cowl 

A voice came forth, which pierced like ice through every soul. 

'Twas an Iberian priest from whom it came 

A zealous man, who led the legioned west. 

With words which faith and pride had stopped in flame. 

To quell the unbelievers . . . 

He ceased, and they 
A space stood silent, as far, far away 
The echoes of his voice among them died; 
And he knelt down upon the dust, alway 
Muttering the curses of his speechless pride. 

There is a striking resemblance between this cowled Iberian 
priest and the Iberian Franciscan of The Missionary. 

The missionary looked to the conversion of the prophetess as 
the most effectual means of accomplishing the conversion of 
the nation. With this end in view he goes to Cashmere, and 
unexpectedly comes upon Luxima one morning, praying at a 
shrine. "Silently gazing in wonder upon each other, they 
stood finely opposed, the noblest specimens of the human 
species . . • ; she, like the East, lovely and luxuriant ; he, like 
the West, lofty and commanding; the one, radiant in all the 
luster, attractive in all the softness which distinguishes her 
native regions; the other, towering in all the energy, which 
marks his ruder latitudes." They meet again and again, and 



52 VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 

the result is they fall in love with each other. It is significant 
from the point of view of the influence of the Missionary that in 
Alastor Shelley meets his ideal love ''in the vale of Cashmire." 
The way the novelist develops the progress of this sentiment, 
which both the priest and the priestess had vowed to suppress, 
can sacrcely be surpassed. She describes how their new mode 
of feeling was opposed by their ancient habits of thinking, and 
how their minds "struggling between a natural bliss and a 
religious principle of resistance, between a passionate senti- 
ment and an habitual self-command, become a scene of conflict 
and agitation." 

Old age with its gray hair, 
And wrinkled legends of unworthy things 
And icy sneers is nought ; it cannot dare 
To burst the chains which life forever flings 
On the entangled soul's aspiring wings.^^ 

Luxima succumbed to the warfare. She overcame the tradi- 
tions and laws by which she was bound; and hence Shelley's 
great admiration for her. She embraced Christianity less in 
faith than in love. She did not feel guilty because she thought 
her sentiments of love were true to all life's natural impulses. 
The missionary, on the other hand, must have excited in 
Shelley pity for the man and hatred for the institutions which 
stood in the way of their happiness. "He had not, indeed, 
relinquished a single principle of his moral feeling — he had not 
yet vanquished a single prejudice of his monastic education ; 
to feel, was still with him to be weak ; to love, a crime ; and to 
resist, perfection." Luxima is excommunicated, deprived of 
caste and declared a wanderer and an outcast upon the earth. 
They both elude their pursuers and join a caravan which is 
on its way to Tatta. On their journey the missionary tells her 
that ihey must soon separate, as duty demands that he con- 
tinue the work of his ministry. He will see to it that she is 
well cared for in a convent at Tatta. Luxima upbraids him 
for his selfishness. He replies that it is not the prospect of 
his degradation and humiliation which deters him from staj^- 
ing with her, but the thought that by so doing he will commit 
a crime — break his vows. "Pity then," the missionary says, 

"The Revolt, Canto II, st. 33. 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 53 

"and yet respect him who, loving thee and virtue equally, can 
never know happiness without nor with thee — who thus con- 
demned to suiler without ceasing submits not to his fate, but 
is overpowered hj its tyranny, and who alike helpless and un- 
resigned opposes while he suffers and repines while he 
endures." Continency was unintelligible to Shelley, and he 
criticizes it in Canto XII as follows: 

. . . that sudden rout 
One checked who never in his mildest dreams 
Felt awe from grace or loveliness, the seams 
Of his rent heart so hard and cold a creed 
Had seared with blistering ice ; but he misdeems 
That he is wise whose wounds do only bleed 
Only for self ; thus thought the Iberian priest indeed 

And others too thought he was wise to see 
In pain and fear and hate something divine; 
In love and beauty no divinity. 

Shelley believed that ''the worthiness of every action is to 
be estimated by the quantity of pleasurable sensation it is 
calculated to produce,"^" that the ideal of man was to love and 
to be loved. Luxima says : "Be that heaven my witness that I 
would not for the happiness I have abandoned and the glory I 
have lost, resign that desert whose perilous solitudes I share 
with thee. Oh! my Father, and my friend, thou alone hast 
taught me to know that the paradise of woman is the creation 
of her heart; that it is not the light or air of heaven, though 
beaming brightness and breathing fragrance, nor all that is 
loveliest in Nature's scenes, which form the sphere of her 
existence and enjoyment ! It is alone the presence of him she 
loves; it is that mysterious sentiment of the heart which dif- 
fuses a finer sense of life through the whole being; and which 
resembles, in its singleness and simplicity, the primordial idea 
which in the religion of my fathers is supposed to have pre- 
ceded time and worlds, and from which all created good has 
emanated."" 

In the preface to The Revolt of Islam Shelley writes that he 
"sought to enlist the harmony of metrical language . . . and 
the rapid and subtle transitions of human passion in the cause 

"Notes to Queen, Mob. 
•■P. 210. 



54 



VIKWS OX MARRIAGE AND LOVE 



of a liberal ami comprolionssivo morality." For tliis purpose 
he chose "a story of human passion in its most nuivei*sal 
character, tliversilied with moving and romantic adventures 
and appeal, in contempt of all artificial opinions or institu- 
tions to the conunon sympathies of every human breast. What 
is the Missiotinry but "a story of human passion appealing in 
contempt of all artificial opinions or institutions to the com- 
mon sympatliies of every human heart?" When The Revolt 
of Islatn first appeared, l.aou and Cythna were brother and 
sister. Their love like that of the missionary and priestess 
is considered illicit. Not only are the motifs of both very 
similar, but many of the incidents are identical. The inthi- 
ence of the Miniiiotiari/ on the Rcrolt will perhaps appear more 
clearly if we put these incidents in parallel columns. In the 
second canto — 



Laon aud Cythna must part 
that they may spread their doc- 
trines among men. 

Cythna says: 

"We part! Laon. I must dare, 

nor tremble 
To meet those looks no more! 
Oh heavy stroke 
Sweet brother of my soul! can 

I dissemble 
The agony of this thought?" 



When the missionary tells Lux- 
ima that thoy must separate, in 
order that he may continue the 
work of his ministry. Luxima 
says she will not long endure the 
agony of separation. "Thinkest 
thou." she exclaims, "that 1 shall 
long survive his loss for whom I 
have sacrificed all?" 



Laon and Cythna are seized by 
the officers of the State, and dur- 
ing the struggle Laon overcomes 
three of the tyrant's soldiers in 
defense of Cythna. 



The missionary and Luxima are 
seized by the officers of the In- 
quisition, aud the missionary over- 
comes three soldiers in defense 
of Luxima. 



" — a feeble shiek 
It was a feeble shriek, faint, far, 

and low 
ArrestCil mc — my mien grctc calm 

Oftd meek — 
'Twas Cythna's cry." 

After the overthrow of the ty- 
rant Othman the people demand 
that he be put to death. 



"But the fcehlc plaints of Lux- 
ima. who was borne away in thb 
arms of one of the assailants re- 
lallcd to his bctrihlcrcd viirid a 
consciousness of their mutual suf- 
ferings and situations." 

Their fellow travelers boldly ad- 
vanced to rescue the missionary 
and Luxima. and awaiting his or- 
ders, asked: "Shall we throw 
those men under the camels' feet 
or shall we bind them to those 
rocks and leave them to their 
fate?" 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AxN'I) LOVIO 



Laon answers: 
" 'What do yt! seek? What fear 

ye,' then 1 cried, 
Suddenly stalling forth, 'that ye 

should shed 
The blood of Othman? If your 

hearts are tried 
In the true love of freedom cease 

to dread 
This one poor lonely man." " 



From his prison Laon sees a 
ship sailing by in which he thinks 
Cythna is imprisoned. 

"I knew that ship bore Cythna 
o'er the plain 

Of waters, to her blighting slavery 
sold 

And watched it with such 
thoughts as must remain un- 
told." 

Cythna is imprisoned in a cav- 
ern, and her mind is deranged 
for a time. 

"The fiend of madness which had 

made its prey 
Of my poor heart yvas lulled to 

sleep awhile." 

The part taken by Laon and 
Cythna in the insurrection of the 
people has already been explained. 

Laon and Cythna are condemned 
to death through the instigation 
of the priests. 

The morning of Laon's execu- 
tion has arrived. 

"And see beneath a sun-bright 

canopy. 
Upon a platform level with the 

pile. 
The anxious Tyrant sit enthroned 

on high 
Girt by the chieftans of the host. 

There was silence through the host 

as when 
An earthquake trampling on some 

populous town, 
Has crusht ten thousand with 

one tread, and men 
Expect the second. 



"The missionary cast on them a 
glance of pity and contempt and 
looking round him with an air at 
once dignified and grateful, he 
said: 'My friends, my heart is 
de(;ply touched by your generous 
sympathy; good and grave men 
ever unite, of whatever religion 
or whatever faith they may be; 
but I belong to a religion whose 
spirit is to save, not to destroy; 
suffer these men to live; thoy are 
but the agents of a higher power 
whose scrutiny they challenge me 
to meet.' " 

On the wny to Goa the mission- 
ary notices a covered conveyance 
going by in which he feels sure 
Luxima is imprisoned. "He shud- 
dered and for a moment the he- 
roism of virtue deserted him. He 
doubted not that she would be 
conveyed in the same vessel with 
him to Goa." 



Luxima is imprisoned in a con- 
vent at Lahore. The exciting in- 
cidents of their arrest and sepa- 
ration had deranged her mind for 
a time. 



The natives are on the point of 
lebelling, and Spanish authority 
in India is on the brink of ex- 
tinction. The missionary is con- 
demned to death, by the Inquisi- 
tion. The morning of the mis- 
sionary's execution has arrived. 

"The secular judges had al- 
ready taken their seats on the 
platform, the Grand Inquisitor 
and the Viceroy had placed them- 
selves beneath their respective 
canopies." The Christian mission- 
ary is led to the pile, "the silence 
ivhich belongs to death reigned on 
every side; thousands of persons 
were present; . . . Nature was 
touched on the master spring of 
emotion, and betrayed in the looks 
of the multitude feelings of hor- 
ror, of pity, and of admiration, 
which the bigoted vigilance of an 
inhuman zeal would in vain have 
sought to suppress. 



56 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 



Tinnult was in the soul of all 

beside, 
111 joy, or doubt, or fear; but 

those who saw 
Their tranquil victim pass felt 

wonder glide, 
Tnto their brain, and became calm 

with awe." 

As burning torches are about 
to be applied to the pyre on which 
Laon is to die, a steed bursts 
through the rank of the people on 
which a woman sits. 

"Fairer, it seems than aught that 

earth can breed. 
Calm, radiant, like a phantom of 

the dawn. 
A spirit from the caves of daij- 

light wandering gone. 
All thought it was God's A7igel 

come to sweep 
The lingering guilty to their tiery 

grave. 



Cythna has come not to save 
Laon but to die with him. 
At the sight of Cythna 

"They pause, they blush, they 
gaze — a gathering shout 

Bursts like one sound from the 
ten thousand streams 

Of a tempestuous sea." 

(All througb. the pceui Cythna 

exerts a wonfferful influence over 

the people.) 



On the day of the execution 
Luxima noticed a procession mov- 
ing beneath her window and her 
eyes rested on the form of the 
missionary. "She beheld the 
friend of her soul: love and rea- 
son returned together."' She es- 
capes the vigilance of her guar- 
dian, and seeks the place where 
her beloved is to die. While offi- 
cers were binding the missionary 
to the stake "a form scared}/ hu- 
man darting with the velocity of 
lightning through the multitude 
reached the foot of the pile and 
stood before it in a grand and 
aspiring attitude. . . . thus bright 
and aerial as it stood, it looked 
like a spirit sent from heaven 
in the awful moment of dissolu- 
tion to cheer and to convey to the 
regions of the blessed, the soul 
which would soon arise pure from 
the ordeal of earthly sufferings. 
The sudden appearance of the 
singular phantom struck the im- 
agination of the credulous and 
awed multitude with superstitious 
wonder. . . . 

The Christians fixed their eyes 
upon the cross, which glittered 
on a bosom whose beauty scarcely 
seemed of mortal mould, and 
deemed themselves the witnesses 
of a miracle wrought for the sal- 
vation of a persecuted martyr, 
whose innocence was asserted by 
the firmness and fortitude with 
which he met a dreadful death." 

Luxima springs upon the pyre to 
die with the missionary. 

At the sight of Luxima the peo- 
ple rise in rebellion. 

"The timid spirits of the Hindus 
rallied to an event which touched 
their hearts, and roused them 
from the lethargy of despair — the 
sufferings, the oppression, they 
had so long endured, seemed now- 
epitomized before their eyes in 
the person of their celebrated and 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 



57 



"The tj'rants send their armed 
slaves to quell 

Her power; they, even like a 
thunder-gust 

Caught by some forest, bend be- 
neath the spell 

Of that young maiden's speech, 
and to their chiefs rebel." 
It did not suit Shelley's purpose 

to have the people use force 

against the tyrants, so he makes 

Cythna persuade the people 

" — though unwilling her to bind 
Near me among the snakes." 

A priest commands the multi- 
tude to seize Cythna, 
"Slaves to the stake 
Bind her, and on my head the 

burden lay 
Of her just torments . . . 
They trembled, but replied not nor 

obeyed 
Pausing in breathless silence. 

Laon escaped from his first 
prison in a boat which belonged to 
an old man who represents Shel- 
ley's tutor at Eton, Dr. Lind. 



distinguished prophetess . . . they 
fell with fury on the Christians, 
they rushed upon the cowardly 
guards of the Inquisition who let 
fall their arms and fled in dis- 
may." 



The officers of the Inquisition 
called on by their superiors sprang 
forward to seize the missionary; 
"for a moment the timid multi- 
tude were still as the pause of 
a brooding storm." 



During the confusion caused by 
the insurrection the missionary 
and Luxima escape in a boat 
which was provided by his old 
tutor, the Pundit. 



The missionary and Luxima reach a cavern which bears a 
slight resemblance to the caverns of The Revolt. He discovers 
that the priestess is dying from a wound received during the 
melee at Lahore. "Answering the eloquence of her languid 
and tender looks, he exclaims, 'Yes, dearest, and most unfor- 
tunate our destines are now inseparably united ! Together we 
have loved, together we have resisted, together we have erred, 
and together we have suffered; lost alike to the glory and the 
fame which our virtues and the conquest of our passions 
obtained for us; alike condemned by our religions and our 
countries, there now remains nothing on earth for us but each 
other.' " This recalls to mind the dedication of TJie Revolt of 
Islam — 

There is no danger to a man that knows 
What life and death is; there's not any law 
Exceeds his knowledge: neither is it lawful 
That he should stoop to any other law. 

As the end of Luxima approaches she bids her beloved live 
and preach peace and mercy, and love to Brahmin and Chris- 



58 VIEWS ON MAKRIAGE AND LOVH 

tiau. "But should thy eloquence and thy example fail, tell 
them my story! toll them how 1 have suffered, and how even 
thou lias failed — thou, for whom I forfeited my caste, my 
country and my life; for 'tis too true, that still more loving 
than enlightened, my ancient habits of belief clung to my 
mind, thou to my heart ; still 1 lived thy seeming proselyte, 
that 1 might still live thine; and now I die as Brahmin women 
die: a Hindoo in my feelings and my faith — dying for him 1 
loved and believing as my fathers believed."-'^ 

This bears some i*esemblance to that part of Cythua's 
speech in the cavern. Canto IX, where she glories in the 
triumph of their love over the opposition of the world. 

I fear nor prize 
Aught that can now betide unshared by thee. 

Cythua thinks that she icill soon die and believes like 
Luxinui that the story of their love will be a source of in- 
spiration to mankind 

Our many thoughts and deeds, our life and love, 
Our happiness, and all that we have been 
Inimorrally must live and burn and move 
When we shall be no more. 

There are. of course, some ditterences between the two 
stories, especially in the conclusions (Cythua and Laon are 
burned, while Luxima alone dies and the Missionary is never 
heard of agaiul ; but many of the incidents of both are so 
alike as to justify us in believing that those in The Revolt were 
derived from The }f}ssionarii. This is contirmed by the fact 
that S^helley nuikes more attacks in this poem on priests and 
the celibacy of the clergy than in any other. In the preface 
to the poem. Shelley says that "although the mere composition 
occupied no nun'e than six months, the thoughts thus arranged 
were slowly gathered in as many years." It is suggestive that 
the idea of composing the poem came to him in ISll. the year 
in which he tirst read the Missionary. In this same year he 
wrote a little poem entitled an Essay on Lore, no copy of which 
is now extant.'"'^ Shotild one ever come to light, it raav show 



"P. 273. 

-Cf. Letter to Godwin. Jan. 16. 1S12. 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGR AND LOVE 59 

remarkable similarity to the love poem The Revolt of Islam, 
where "love is celebrated everywhere as the sole law which 
should govern the moral world.""" 

It has been said that Shelley was a libertine, but there 
seems to be no proof for this assertion. Hogg, who was his 
most intimate friend at Oxford, says the purity and sanctity of 
Shelley's life were most conspicuous. "He was offended, and 
indeed more indignant than would appear to be consistent 
with the singular iiiildncss of his nature at a coarse and 
awkward jest, especially if it were immodest and uncleanly; 
in the latter case his anger was unbounded, and his uneasiness 
preeminent." With the exception of his elopement with Mary 
Godwin there is nothing in his life to indicate that he was 
licentious. "Die ruhe, klarheit, sicherheit und stiirke seines 
geschlechtlichen empfiindens, das frei ist von aller lusternheit 
Oder unnaturliclikeit ist bei seiner feinfiihligen, nervosen 
korperanlage besonders bemerkenswert.""^ 

True, Shelley loved many women, but this does not prove 
that he was immoral. His love is platonic and not sensual. 
IMatonic love is described by Howell as "a love abstracted 
from all corporeal gross impressions and sensual appetites, 
but consists in contemplations and ideas of the mind.""^ Tt 
is a passion having its source in the enjoyment of beauty and 
goodness. 

"What is love or friendship?" Shelley asks. "Is it capable 
of no extension, no communication?" Lord Kaimes defines 
love to be a particularization of the general passion, but this 
is the love of sensation, of sentin\ent — the a])surdest of absurd 
vanities; it is the love of pleasure, not the love of happiness. 
The one is a love which is self -centered, self-devoted, self-' 
interested . . . selfishness, monopoly in its very soul; but 
love, the love which we worship — virtue, heaven, disinterest- 
edness — in a word.""^ Love seeks the good of all, not because 
its object is a minister to its pleasures, but because it is really 
worthy. 



•"Preface to The Revolt of Islam. 
"Maurer: Shelley und die frauen, p. 74. 
"Howell's Letters, Book I, sect. 6, let. XV. 
"To E. Kitchener, Nov. 12, 1811. 



()0 VIKWS OX MARRIAOK AND LOVE 

I'lntonisni. Inviiii; iMiipluisis; upon tlic t'mutioii oi' the soul 
;is opposed to the sonsos. treats "love as n purely spiritual 
passion devoid of all sensuous pleasure.""^ Heauty is a 
spiritual thinj;, the splendor of (lod's lijilit sliiniug in all 
thiufis. It is that (juality of an object which draws us to it 
and make us love it. Man should love everything and every- 
body because they are all beautiful. Shelley says: 

True love in this ditl'ers from gold and clay. 
That to divide is not to take away 
Love is like understanding, that grows bi-ight 
(lazing on many truths:''^ 

In another place he says "the meanest of t)ur fellow beings 
contains qualities, which, developed, we must admire and 
adore." Beauty is something nu>re than outward appearance. 
The source of its power lies in the soul. "The platouic theory 
of beauty teaches that the beauty of the body is a result of 
the formative energy of the soul." According to the Platouisi 
Ficino the soul has descended from heaven and has framed a 
body in whicli to dwell. True lovers are those whose souls 
have departed from heaven under the same astral intluenc?s 
and wh(\ acc(n'diugly, are informed with the same idea in 
imitation of which they frame their earthly bodies."''" "We are 
born," writes Shelley, "into the world, and there is something 
within us which, from the instant that we live, more and 
more thirsts after its likeness . . . The discovery of 
its antitype: the meeting with an umierstanding capable of 
clearly estimating our own . . . witli a frame whose 
nerves like the chords of two exquisite lyres, strung to the 
accompaniment of one delightful voice, vibrate with the vibra- 
tions of our own : . . . this is the invisible and unattain- 
able point to which love tends.""' According to Plato wisdom 
is the most lovely of all ideas and the human being who has 
the greatest amount of wisdom is the most lovable. Platonic 
love then concerns only the soul, and the union of lover and 
beloved is simply a union of their souls. "I am led to love 
a being," Shelley says, "not because it stands in the physical 



"J. S. Harrison. Platonisin in English Poetry of the Sixteenth and 
Seventeenth Centuries, p. 104. 
"Epipsi/chidion. Dowden. p, 40S. 
"Platonism in Ena'i'^h Pocinj, p. 115. 
''Essay on Love. 



VIEWS ON MARRIAfiK AM) [.OV'IO 61 

relation of blood to me Liit l)eeauKe 1 discern an intellectual 
relationship.""'* AVhenever Shelley sees one possessing beauty 
and virtue he cannot help loving that person. 

1 never was attached to that great sect 
Whose doctrine is that each one should select 
Out of the crowd a mistress or a friend 
And all the rest though fair and wise commend 
To cold oblivion;"" 

Again 

Narrow 

The heart that loves, the brain that contemplates 
The life that wears, the spirit that creates 
One object, and one form, and builds thereby 
A sepulchre for its eternity. 

This is the doctrine of Diotima in Plato's Symposium, 
which Shelley has translated as follows: ''He who aspires 
to love rightly, ought from his earliest youth to seek an 
intercourse with beautiful forms. ... He ought then to 
consider that beauty in whatever form it resides is the brother 
of that beauty which subsists in another form; and if he 
ought to pursue that which is beautiful in form it would be 
absurd to imagine that beauty is not one and the same thing 
in all forms, and would therefore remit much of his ardent 
preferences towards one, through his perception of the multi- 
tude of claims upon his love." 

In the preface to Alastor Shelley says that the poem repre- 
sents a youth (himself) of uncorrupted feelings led forth to 
the contemplation of the universe. "But the period arrives 
when these objects cease to suffice. His mind is at length 
awakened, and thirsts for intercourse with an intelligence 
similar to himself. Tie images to himself the Heing whom 
lie loves." This inuige unites all of v/onderful or wise or 
beautiful which the poet could depict. Shelley sought this 
ideal all through life, and when he thought he found it went 
into raptures. Disillusionment, however, soon followed, and 
Alastor is the expression of his despair at not finding an em- 
bodiment of his ideal. 



■"Letter to Miss Kitchener. 
**Epipsychidion. 



62 VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 

If we keep in mind that Shelley was a platonist, we shall 
be able to form a more intelligent estimate of liis love lyrics 
and his relations with women. In his first wife, Harriet, he 
saw courage, a desire for freedom, and a willingness to learn 
his doctrines. 

Thon art sincere and good, of resolute mind 
Free from heart-withering customs' cold control. 
Of passion lofty, i)ure and subdued. 

As soon as she ceased to take interest in his studies, his 
love for her began to wane. "Every one must know," he tells 
Peacock, "that the partner of my life should be one who can 
feel poetry and understand philosophy." A month or two 
after his first marriage he tells Elizabeth Kitchener that he 
loves her. Seeing that she possessed high intelligence, great 
love of mankind, and a tendency to oppose existing institu- 
tions, he straightway calls her the ''sister of his soul." 

Later on he meets a beautiful, sentimental Italian girl, 
Emilia Viviani, imagines she is the perfect ideal which he 
had formed in his youth, and writes the Eplpsijchidion. 
"Emilia," says Professor Dowden, ''beautiful, spiritual, sor- 
rowing, became for him a type and symbol of all that is most 
radiant and divine in nature, all that is most remote and 
unattainable, yet ever to be pursued — the ideal of beauty, 
truth, and love."'" Epipsj/cJiUlion is the poetic embodiment 
of the feelings awakened in Shelley by this supposed discovery 
of the incarnation of the ideal. Emilia turned out to be an 
ordinary human creature, and then Shelley wished to blot 
out the memory of her entirely. In a letter to Mr. Gisborne, 
June, 1822, Shelley says: "I think one is always in love with 
something or other; the error — and I confess it is not easy 
for spirits cased in flesh and blood to avoid it — consists in 
seeking in a mortal image the likeness of what is, perhaps 
eternal." "Such illusions," says Dowden, "may be of service 
in keeping alive within us the aspiration for the highest 
things, but assuredl}^ they have a tendency to draw away 
from real persons some of those founts of feeling which are 
needed to keep fresh and bright the common ways and days 
of our life."^^ 



I 



"Doivden's Life, Vol. II. p. 373. 
'Life of Shelley, Vol. II, p. 378. 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 63 

Some of Shelley's views ou women and the family were 
derived from Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights 
of Women. "According to the jirevailing opinion," says Mrs. 
Wollstonecraft, "women were made for men." All their cares 
and anxieties are directed towards getting husbands. They deck 
themselves ont with artificial graces tliat enable them to exer- 
cise a short lived tyranny. "Love in their bosoms, taking 
place of ever}' nobler passion, their sole ambition is to look 
fair, to raise emotion instead of inspiring respect; and this 
ignoble desire, like the servility in absolute monarchies, de- 
stroys all strength of character."^- Women then should not 
depend on their charms alone, because these have little effect 
on their husband's heart "when they are seen every day when 
the summer is past and gone." Her first care should be to 
improve her mind, to exercise her God-given faculties, assert 
her individuality. This can never be, though, as long as 
she is the plaything of man. If one may contest the divine 
right of kings one may also contest the divine right of hus- 
bands. Women should bow only to reason and cease being 
the modest slaves of opinion. It is a violation of the sacred 
rights of humanity to exact blind obedience and meek sub- 
mission of women. "The being who patiently endures in- 
justice will soon become unjust." 

In The Revolt of Islam, Cythna says: 

Can man be free if woman be a slave? 

Chain one who lives and breathes this boundless air, 

To the corruption of a closed grave! 

Can they whose mates are beasts condemned to bear 

Scorn, heavier far than toil or anguish, dare 

To trample their oppressors? 

According to Pope "every woman is at heart a rake." "Ren- 
dered gay and giddy by the whole tenor of their lives, the 
very aspect of wisdom or the severe graces of virtue must 
have a lugubrious appearance to them." "Till women are led 
to exercise their understandings they should not be satirized 
for their attachment to rakes. "'-^ 

Shelley's opinion of women is even less complimentary : 



''Windication of the Rights of Women, ch. II, p. 38. 
"P. 128. 



64 VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 

Woman ! she is his slave, she has become 

A thing I weep to speak — the child of scorn, 

The outcast of a desolated home. 

Falsehood, and fear, and toil, like waves have worn 

Channels upon her cheek, which smiles adorn, 

As calm decks the false ocean. . . .''* 

''The parent," Mrs. Wollstonecraft writes, ''who pays proper 
attention to helpless infancy has a right to require the same 
attention when the feebleness of age comes upon him. But to 
subjugate a rational being to the mere will of another, after 
he is of age to answer to society for }iis own conduct, is a 
most cruel and undue stretch of power, and perhaps as in- 
jurious to morality as those religious systems which do not 
allow right and wrong to have any existence, but in the Divine 
will." Children should be taught early to submit to reason, 
"for to submit to reason, is to submit to the nature of things, 
and to that God who formed them so. to promote our real 
interest."" 

But children near their parents tremble now 

Because they must obey . . . 

. . . and life is poisoned in its wells.^" 

"Obedience (were society as I could wish it) is a word 
which ought to be without meaning.'*'^ 

Another book that interested Shelley very much was the 
''Memoires relatives a hi Revolution Francaisc" of Louvet. 
Louvet was a licentious novelist and ardent Kepublican. He 
strongly opposed the tyranny of Marat and of Robespierre and 
the work of the commune of Paris. He was very courageous 
and often endangered his life by his opposition to the arbi- 
trary measures of the Council. In 1793 he was obliged to 
flee for his life and the Memoirs contains interesting details 
of this flight. He and his wife were very devoted to each 
other, and this together with the man's courage made a strong 
impression on Shelley. ''Je te laissai, mon cher Barbaroux; 
maix tu me le pardonnes; tu sais quelle passion j'avais pour 
elle, et comme elle en etait digue !" He goes to Paris in spite 



'♦TTie Revolt of Islam, Canto II, st. 36. 
'"Vindication of the Rights of Women, ch. XI. 
"The Revolt of Islam, Canto VIII, st. 13. 
"Miss Kitchener. Dec. 11, 1811. 



VIEWS ON MARRIAGE AND LOVE 65 

of the fact that he runs the risk of being seized and guillotined. 
''Quicouque n'epouvva point un pariel supplice ne saurait en 
avoir une juste idee. O Ladoiska! sans le souvenir de ton 
amour, qui done aurait pu m' empecher de terminer mes 
peines?'"* 

Louvet and Ladoiska are reunited again, but only to be 
arrested soon afterwards. This causes her to exclaim, "Non, 
je jure que sans toi, la vie m'est tourment, un insupportable 
tourmeut, seule, je perirais bientot, je perirais desesper6e. Ah ! 
permets, permets que nous mourions ensemble.'"" 

This work may have suggested to Shelley the idea of making 
Laon and Cythna die together. Cythna tells Laon 

Darkness and deatli, if death be true, must be 
Dearer than life and hope if unenjoyed with thee.®" 



"P. 200, Memoirs. 

"P. 281. 

'"Canto IX, St. 34. 



CHAPTER 111 

POLITICS 

Someone has said that if Shelley had not been a poet he 
would have been a politician. Certain it is that he gave to 
politics a great deal of thought and study. On January 26, 
1819, Shelley wrote to Peacock : '*! consider poetry very sub- 
ordinate to political science, and, if I were well, certainly I 
would aspire to the latter, for I can conceive a great work 
embodying the discoveries of all ages, and harmonizing the 
contending creeds by which mankind have been ruled. "*^ Shel- 
ley was not one who 

beheld the woe 
In which mankind was bound, and deem'd that fate 
Which made them abject, would preserve them so. 

On the contrary, he firmly believed in man's capacity to work 
out his own regeneration. His tuneful lyre was ever at the 
service of the Goddess of Freedom ; and he took occasion often 
to pour forth music calculated to rouse the nations from their 
apathy. 

Very many of Shelley's views on political and social ques- 
tions can be traced to Godwin's Political Justice, Godwin 
doubts that one can be said to have a mind. It may still be 
convenient to use the word ''mind," but in fact what we know 
by that name is merely a chain of ''ideas." Since man's mind 
is but an aggregate of ideas, man himself is capable of in- 
definite modification. Differences in men result wholly from 
differences of education. Feed a sinner on syllogisms and 
you can transform him into a saint. It is impossible for one 
to resist a clear exposition of the advantages of virtue. It 
follows, too, that we can easily abolish existing institutions 
and rearrange the whole structure of society on new prin- 
ciples infallibly correct. The force which is to spur us on to 
do this is reason. It is "omnipotent." 

Volney, Rousseau, -^Holbach, and the rest of this stamp, 
although condemning past sj^stems of government, admitted 
that some form of government was necessary for the well- 



"Ungpen, p. 659. 
66 



I POLITICS 67 

being of mankind. Godwin, on the other hand, denounced 
all government as 'an institution of the most pernicious ten- 
dency." There is only one power to which man should yield 
obedience and that is the decision of his own understanding. 
Conditions being such as they are, government may be required 
for a while to restrain and direct men, but as soon as men 
will learn to follow reason, government will disappear alto- 
gether. 

Godwin taught that every voluntary action flows solely 
from the decision of one's judgment. ''Voluntary actions of 
men originate in all cases in their opinions," i. c, in the state 
of their minds immediately previous to those actions. The 
nature of a man's actions, therefore, depends on the nature 
of his opinions. If he has just and true opinions his actions 
will be good; if erroneous ones, his actions will be bad. But 
"sound reasoning and truth adequately communicated must 
be victorious over error."®^ Man will always accept the truth 
if presented to him properly. It follows, then, that ''reason 
and conviction appear to be the proper instruments for regu- 
lating the actions of mankind." Man's conduct should not 
conform to any other standard but reason. Obedience to law 
then is immoral, unless of course its mandates correspond to 
the decision of our own judgments. Shelley has the same idea 

The man 
Of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys. 
Power, like a devastating pestilence 
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience 
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth, 
Make slaves of men, and of the human frame 
A mechanized automaton.^^ 

Again and again he exclaims against kings and autocracy. 
His sonnet, "England in 1819," is a terrible castigation of the 
Hanoverian Kings : 

An old, mad, blind, despised and dying king ; 
Princes the dregs of their dull race, who flow 
Through public scorn — mud from a muddy spring, 
Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know, 
But leech-like to their fainting country cling. 
Till they drop blind in blood without a blow, etc., etc. 

"^Book I, Ch. V, p. 87. 
^^Queen Mai), Canto III. 



68 POLITICS 

To aid republicauisni he espoused the cause of the unhappy 
Caroline of Brunswick and on her account wrote "A New 
National Anthem," and the satirical piece, "Swellfoot the 
Tyrant." In "Hellas'' we find him advocating the cause of 
Greece, and it is believed that this poem moved his friend 
Byron to take up arms in defense of that country. 

"A king," writes Godwin, ''is necessarily and unavoidably 
a despot in his heart." With him the words ''ruler" and 
"tyrant" are sj^ionymous. A king from the very nature of 
his office cannot be anything but vicious. Shelley expresses 
his opinion of kings as follows : 

The king, the wearer of a gilded chain 
That binds his soul to abjectness, the fool 
Whom courtiers nickname monarch, whilst a slave 
Even to the basest appetites.^* 

One wonders at first why Shelley should have represented 
evil as an eagle in Tlie Revolt of Islam. The reason for this 
becomes clear when one considers that the eagle is often called 
a king among birds and is used as a symbol for authority. 

Shelley, however, did not believe in violent revolutions. In 
The Revolt of Islam, Irish pamphlets, &c., he advocates refor- 
mation without recourse to force. A change must take place ; 
kings must be done away with, but not until the people are 
prepared for the change. "A pure republic," he writes, "may 
be shown, by inferences the most obvious and irresistible, to 
be that system of social order the fittest to produce the happi- 
ness and promote the genuine eminence of man. Yet nothing 
can less consist with reason or afiford smaller hopes of any 
beneficial issue than the plan which should abolish the regal 
and the aristocratical branches of our constitution, before the 
public mind, through many gradations of improvement, shall 
have arrived at the maturity which shall disregard these sym- 
bols of its childhood." 

Godwin and Shelley maintain that the state should make 
as little use as possible of coercion and violence. "Criminals 
should be pitied and reformed, not detested and punished." 
The punishment of death is particularly obnoxious to them. 
Shelley argues against it in his essay on The Punishment of 



**Queen Mai, III, p. 9. 



POLITICS 69 

Death. He claims that the punishment of death defeats its 
own end. It is a triumphant exhibition of suffering virtue, 
which may inspire some with pity, admiration and sympathy. 
As a consequence it may incite them to emulate their works, 
especially the works of political agitators. Punishment of 
death, again, excites those , emotions which are inimical to 
social order. It strengthens .ill the inhuman and unsocial im- 
pulses of man. The contempt of human life breeds ferocity 
of manners and contempt of social ties. Hence it is, Shelley 
believes, that those nations in which the penal code has been 
particularly mild have been distinguished from all others by 
the rarity of crime. 

'Neither should the citizens of a state use violence in putting 
down oppression. In his address to the Irish he tells them 
that violence and folly will serve only to delay emancipation. 
"Mildness, sobriety, and reason are the effectual methods of 
forwarding the ends of liberty and happiness." Violence and 
falsehoo<l will produce nothing but wretchedness and slavery 
nnd will make those who use them incapable of further exer- 
tion. Violence will immediately render their cause a bud otic. 
(Jodwin likewise maintains that "force is an expedient the 
use of which is much to be dejilored. It is contrary to the 
nature of intellect which cannot be improved but by conviction 
and persuasion. It corrupts the man that employs it and the 
man upon whom it is employed."®'^ In The Revolt of Islam 
Shelley says: 

Oh wherefore should ill ever flow from ill, 

And pain still keener pain forever breed? '^ 

We are all brethren — even the slaves who kill 

For hire are men ; and to avenge misdeed 

On the misdoer doth but misery feed f 

With her own broken heart ,11^ ^^--^.a » s 



Godwin would reform society by me«^-or education, so 
also would Shelley. They seem to differ though in their views 
with regard to the relations that exist between institutions 
and individuals. Godwin holds that tyrranical institutions 
must be abolished before men can become free. Shelley, on the 



'"Political Justice, IV, 1. 
"Canto V. 



70 POLITICS 

contrary, says that the freedom and enlightenment of indivi- 
duals should come first, and it is only when that is accom- 
plished that tyrannical institutions will disappear. Godwin 
writes: "The only method according to which social improve- 
ments can be carried on is when the improvement of our 
institutions advances in a just proportion to the illumination 
of the public understanding.®^ While Shelley writes in his 
address to the Irish people that reform "is founded on the 
reform of private men and without individual amendment 
it is vain and foolish to expect the amendment of a state or 
government." Although Godwin says in the first book of 
Political Justice that it is futile to attempt to change morals 
without first changing our institutions, still, later on, he seems 
to forget this and to advocate the reform of individuals. 
"Make men wise," he writes, "and by that very operation you 
make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence 
of this."®® Shellej', unlike Plato, would give to poets 
the first place in his plan for the reform of society. 
He calls them "the acknowledged legislators of the world."®^ 
Godwin's principle of justice is that each should do to others 
all the good that is in his power. It is an impartial treatment 
of every man in matters that relate to his happiness — a treat- 
ment which is to be measured solely by a consideration of the 
properties of the receiver and the capacity of him who bestows. 
Everything should be so disposed — material comforts so dis- 
tributed as to give the same amount of pleasure to all. Per- 
sonal and private feelings such as gratitude and parental 
affection should be destroyed. A just man will consider the 
general good only. Hence if my father and a stranger who is 
of more benefit to society than my father are both in danger 
of death, I am bound to try to save the stranger first.^° SheUey 
has something similar to this in his Essay on Christianity: "I 
love my country, I love the city in which I was born, my 
parents, my wife and the children of my care, and to these 
children, this woman, this nation, it is incumbent on me to do 



"Political Justice, I. 273. 
"Ibid., p. 259. 
^'Defense of Poetry. 
•"Ibid. 



POLITICS 71 

all the benefits in my power. . . . You ought to love all man- 
kind, nay every individual of mankind. You ought not to love 
the individuals of your domestic circle less, but to love those 
who exist beyond it more." Godwin says that one principle 
of justice is "to be no respecter of persons.'"*^ In a letter to 
Miss Hitchener, October, 1811, Shelley writes :*'!.,. set my- 
self up as no respecter of persons." "The end of virtue," says 
Godwin, "is to add to the sum of pleasurable sensation." In 
the Essay on Christianity Shelley writes: "This and no other 
is justice: to consider under all circumstances and con- 
sequences of a particular case how the greatest quantity and 
purest quality of happiness will ensue from any action; this is 
to lie just; and there is no other justice," Godwin''^ attempts 
to tell how we can find out whether an action would be just 
or not. He warns us against measuring the morality of an 
action according to existing laws. We can determine its 
morality only by trying to estimate the amount of happiness 
or pain it will cause others. "One of the best practical rules 
of morality," he writes, "is that of putting ourselves in the 
place of another. ... It is by this means only that we can 
form an adequate idea of his pleasures and pains."^^ Shelley 
expresses the same thought in his Defense of Poetry: "A man 
to be greatly good must imagine intensely and comprehen- 
sively; he must put himself in the place of another and many 
others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his 
own." 

For Shelley laws are "obscure records of dark and barbarous 
echos," "tomes of reasoned wrong glozed on by ignorance."®* 
Lawyers are those who, skilled to snare 

The feet of justice in the toils of law 
Stand, ready to oppress the weaker still.®^ 

"Government," he says, "cannot make a law, it can only pro- 
nounce that which was the law before its organization, viz.: 
the moral result of the imperishable relations of things;"^® 



"Political Justice, Book II, Chap. II, p. 126. 

"=Ibid., I, p. 126. 

''Enquirer, p. 298. 

"Prom. Unbound, III. 4. 167. 

"Queen Mai. 

"Decl. of Rights, art. 15. 



72 POLITICS 

and in his Address to the Irish: *'No act of a national repre- 
sentation can make anything wrong which was not wrong 
before: it cannot change virtue and truth." All this is merely 
a repetition of Godwin's principles. "Immutable reason," he 
says, "is the true legislator, and her decrees it behooves us to 
investigate. The functions of society extend, not to the mak- 
ing, but the interpreting of law; it cannot decree, it can only 
declare that which the nature of things has already decreed. '"^^ 

Godwin was a communist rather than a socialist. Every kind 
of cooperation was repugnant to him. With regard to the 
distribution of wealth he taught that any given article belonged 
to him to whom it will give the greatest sum of benefit or 
})leasure. A loaf of bread, r. g., belongs to the man who needs 
it most. Shelley holds that if the properties of the aristocrats 
were resolved into their original stock, and if each earned his 
own living, each would be happy and contented, and crime and 
the temptation to crime would scarcely exist. "If t\TO 
children," he writes, "were placed together in a desert island 
and they found some scarce fruit, would not justice dictate an 
equal division? If this number is multiplied to any extent of 
which number is capable, if these children are men, families — 
is not justice capable of the same extension and multiplication? 
Is it not the same, are not its decrees invariable ?"^^ Again in 
his Essay on Christianity: "With aU those who are truly wise, 
there will be an entire community not only of thoughts and 
feelings but also of external possessions." Both Shelley and 
Godwin put the rent-roll of lands in the same class as the 
pension-liyt which is supposed to be employed in the purchase 
of ministerial majorities. 

It is a calculation of Godwin, says Shelley, "that all the 
conveniences of civilized life might be produced if society 
would divide the labor equally among its members, by each 
individual being employed in labor two hours during the 
day.""' Godwin says that the means of subsistence belong 
entirely to the owner. The fruits of labor belong to the laborer, 
but he is only the steward of them. He can consume only what 



"Political Justice, I, p. 221. 

•'Letter to Elizabeth Kitchener. July 26, 1811. 

••Notes to Queen Mab. 



POLITICS 73 

he needs, and must preserve and dispense the rest for the bene- 
fit of others. In his Essay on Christianity, Shelley writes 
''every man in proportion to his virtue considers himself, with 
respect to the great community of mankind, as the steward 
and guardian of their interests in the property which he 
chances to possess.""" When Shelley proposed to share his 
income with Elizabeth Hitchener he said that he was not do- 
ing an act of generosity, but one of justice — "bare, simple 
justice." Godwin says that new inventions and the refine- 
ments of luxury are inimical to the welfare of society. These 
mean more work for the poor while only the rich are 
benefited. ^''^ "The poor," writes Shelley, "are set to labor — 
for what? Not the food for which they famish; not the 
blankets for want of which ... no; for the pride of power, 
for the miserable isolation of pride, for the false pleasures of 
the hundredth part of society." Godwin says that the direct 
pleasure which luxuries give is very small. They are prized 
because of the^ love of distinction which is characteristic of 
every human mind. Fine bonnets and wealth would not be 
desired by a family living on a desert island. Why not let the 
acquisition of learning and the practice of virtue instead of 
wealth be the road to fame. Shelley writes — 

And statesman boasts 
Of wealth. . . . How vainly seek 
The selfish for that happiness denied 
To aught but virtue.^"' 

Again : "the man who has fewest bodily wants approachest 
nearest to the Divine Nature. Satisfy these wants at the 
cheapest rates and expend the remaining energies of your 
nature in the attainment of virtue and knowledge. ... Ye 
can spend no labor on mechanism consecrated to luxury and 
pride."^"^ "There is no wealth in the world," says Godwin, 
"except this, the labor of man.""* Every new luxury is a new 
weight thrown on the shoulders of the laborer, for which they 



""Shelley Memorials, Essay on Christianity, p. 297. 
'"^Book VITI, ch. 2. 
""Queen Mab, V. 

^"'Essay on Christianity, p. 302. 

'^The Enquirer, Part II, essay 2; also Political Justice, Book VIII, 
ch. 2. 



74 POLITICS 

receive no benefit. In the Notes to Queen Mai), Shelley writes : 
''there is no real wealth but the labor of man."' "What is 
misnamed wealth," writes Godwin, "is merely a power vested 
in certain individuals by the institutions of society to compel 
others to labor for their benefit.^^^ "Wealth," says Shelley, "is 
a power usurped by the few to compel the many to labor for 
their benefit."^"'' 

Shelley during his sojurn in Ireland, in the spring of 1813, 
published the Declaration of Rights. This pamphlet after- 
wards led to the arrest of his Irish servant, Daniel Hill, for 
distributing the same without authority. Many propositions 
of the Declaration of Rights bear considerable resemblance to 
some of the proposals of the Declaration of Rights adopted by 
the Constitutional Assembly of France in August, 1789. 

No. 3 of Shelley's Declaration reads as follows: "Govern- 
ment is devised for the security of rights. The rights of men 
are liberty and an equal participation in the commonage of na- 
ture." Proposition No. 2 of the Constituent AssemMy is: 
"The object of every political association is the conservation 
of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights 
are liberty, security, resistance to oppression." 

In No. 4 Shelley says : "As the benefit of the governed is, 
ought to be, the origin of government, no man can have any 
authority that does not expressly emanate from their will. The 
corresponding constituent proposition is : "The principle of 
all authority resides essentially in the nation; no body, no 
individual can exercise any authority that does not expressly 
emanate from it." 

Compare Shelley's No. 6 with Nos. 1 and 17. No. 6: "All 
have a right to an equal share in the benefits and burdens of 
the government. Any disabilities for opinions imply, by their 
very existence, barefaced tyranny on the side of the govern- 
ment, ignorant slavishness on the side of the governed." No. 
1 of the Assembly : "Men are born and remain free and equal. 
Social distinctions can only be founded on the common good." 
No. 17: "Property being an inviolable and sacred right, no 
one can be deprived of it, unless public necessity evidently 



^"'Political Enquirer, j). 177. 
^'"Notes to Queen Mah. 



POLITICS 75 

demands it, and then only on condition that indemnity be 
made." 

No. 7 of the Declaration resembles the constituent Nos. 8 
and 9. Shelley says: "The rights of man in the present state 
of society are only to be secured by some degree of coercion 
to be exercised on their violator. The sufferer has a right 
that the degree of coercion employed be as light as possible." 

No. 8: "The law should establish only those punishments 
that are strictly and evidently necessary, &c." 

No. 9 : ". . . all unnecessary severity should be repressed 
by law." 

Shelley's No. 9 and the constituent No. 7 declare that no 
man has the right to resist the law. 

No. 15 of the Declaration resembles No. 5 of the Constituent 
Assetnhly. No. 15: "Law cannot make what is in its nature 
virtuous or innocent to be criminal, .any more than it can 
make what is criminal to be in^^ent. Government cannot 
make a law; it can only pronounce that which was the law 
before its organization, viz., the moral result of the imperish- 
able relation of things." No. 5:^'Law has only the right to 
prohibit those actions which are injurious to society. Any- 
thing that is not forbidden by the law cannot be prevented, 
and no one can be constrained to do that which is not or- 
dained by law." 

Shelley's No. 21 is : "The government of a country ought to 
be perfectly indifferent to every opinion. Religious differ- 
ences, the bloodiest and most rancorous of all, spring from 
partiality." This corresponds to constituent No. 10: "No one 
should be disturbed on account of his opinions, even religious 
ones, provided their manifestation does not endanger the 
public order established by law." 

Finally compare Shelley's No. 27 with constituent No. 6. 
No. 27: "No man has a right to be respected for any other 
possessions but those of virtue and talents. Titles are tinsel, 
power a corruptor, glory a bubble, and excessive wealth a 
libel on its possessor. No. 6 : "All citizens, being equal in the 
eyes of the law, are equally admissable to every dignity, posi- 
tion, and public employment according to their capacity, and 
without any other distinction but those of virtue and talents." 



76 POLITICS 

Shelley's political views were somewhat modified by the 
iiiHuence of Leigh Hunt. The two friends probably met for 
the first time in January, 1814. Both were sensitive and of a 
retiring disposition, dwelling in a world of books and dreams. 
Hunt, like Shelley, advocated Catholic emancipation, freedom 
of the press, and reform of parliamentary representation. He 
differed from Shelley in this, that he was more practical, and 
had more faith than his friend in the advantages of such par- 
tial reforms as the abolition of child labor and of the slave 
trade, the reduction and equalization of taxes, and the educa- 
tion of the poor. Hunt advocated the reform of military dis- 
cipline, while Shelley claimed that standing armies should be 
abolished altogether. Hunt carried on his attacks against 
the evils of the time in the pages of The Examiner, which 
everybody read in those days. In 1813 the Hunt brothers 
were fined and imprisoned for an offensive article on the 
Prince Kegent which appeared in their paper. Shelley must 
have ottered to pay this fine, as Hunt records in his anto- 
biograph}^ that Shelley made him a i>riucely ofter. In Decem- 
ber, 1816, the Shelleys, after their ret\irn from the continent, 
were the guests of Hunt at Hampstead and received his sup- 
poi't and sympathy during the Chancery suit. Through Hunt, 
Shelley made the acquaintance of the Cockney circle, includ- 
ing Keats, Hazlitt, Reynolds, Novello, Brougham and Horace 
Smith, In return for all this Shelley gave freely of his money 
to Hunt. 

One acquainted with the Englishman's sense of honor may 
wonder at the unusual way Hunt and Godwin accepted money 
from Shelley and others. It must be remembered though 
that these men believed no man had exclusive ownership in 
superfluous wealth. They received what Shelley could spare 
as if they were taking what belonged to themselves. 

Early in 1817 Shelley wrote A Proposal for Putting Rcfonn 
to a Vote, a pamphlet which today in England would be con- 
sidered conservative. It suggested that a meeting l)e held at 
the Crown and Anchor Tavern ''to take into consideration tlie 
most effectual measures for ascertaining whether or no a 
reform in Parliament is the will of the majority of the in- 
dividuals of the British nation. It disclaimed any design of 



POLITICS 77 

sanctioning the revolutionary schemes wliich were imputed to 
the friends of reform, and declares that its object is purely 
constitutional. The pamphlet advocates annual parliaments, 
but not universal suffrage. In it Shelley expresses himself in 
favor of retaining the regal and aristocratical branches of our 
constitution until the public mind "shall have arrived at the 
maturity that can disregard these symbols of its childhood." 
"Political institutions," he there writes, "are undoubtedly 
susceptible of such improvement as no rational person can 
consider possible as long as the present degraded condition 
to which the vital imperfections in the existing system of gov- 
ernment has reduced the vast multitude of men shall subsist. 
The securest method of arriving at such beneficial innovations 
is to proceed gradually and with caution." 

In February, 1817, the Shelleys went to live at Marlow. 
There was much suffering among the lacemakers of that town 
and Shelley went continually among the unfortunate popula- 
tion, relieving the most pressing cases of distress to the best 
of his ability. He had a list of pensioners to whom he made 
a weekly allowance. One day he returned home without shoes, 
having given them away to a poor man. 

On March 11, 1818, Shelley, accompanied by his family, 
quitted England, never again to return. In Italy, as in Eng- 
land, he continually changed his place of abode. During the 
year 1818 he wrote Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, 
Julian and Maddalo, and also began Prometheus Unhound. 
This last work was completed in Kome during the summer and 
fall of 1819. "The poem,"' he says in the preface, "was chiefly 
written upon the mountainous ruins of the baths of Cara- 
calla, among the flowery glades and thickets of odoriferous 
blossoming trees which are extended in everwinding labyrinths 
upon its immense platf<3rms and dizzy arches suspended in 
the air." Prometheus Unbound is considered by many to be 
Shelley's most important work. Mr. J. A. Symonds declares 
that "a genuine liking for it may be reckoned the touchstone 
of a man's capacity for understanding lyric poetry." Mr. 
Rossetti waxes eloquent over "The immense scale and bound- 
less scope of the conception; the marble majesty and extra- 
mundane passions of the personages ; the sublimity of ethical 



78 POLITICS 

aspiration; the radiance ol" ideal and poetic beauty which 
saturates every phase of the subject." 

Prometheus, according to W. Rossetti, is the mind of man. 
In his preface to the poem Shelley writes: "But Prometheus 
is, as it were, the type of the highest perfection of moral and 
intellectual nature impelled by the purest and truest motives 
to the best and noblest ends." At the opening of the drama 
Prometheus is discovered bound to an icy precipice in the 
Indian Caucasus. He is kept there by the tyrant Jupiter, 
whom he helped to enthrone in place of Saturn. Mercury is 
sent to Prometheus and oilers him freedom from torture on 
condition that he reveal the secret of averting the fall of 
Jupiter. This Prometheus refuses to do because it would seat 
the tyrant more securely on his throne. He is then left to 
the untender mercies of the Furies. These torture him by 
making him contemplate all the misery of the world and the 
futility of hoping for any release from it. They expose to 
view the wrecks of all the schemes ever advanced for the 
regeneration of society, and especiallj' the hate, bloodshed, 
and misery which followed in the wake of the most promising 
of them all, the French Revolution. They remind him that 
Christ's mission is a failure; that His followers are perse- 
cuted; and that Christianity has not lessened the deceit and 
selfishness of man. The anguish of Prometheus is mental 
rather than physical. He cries out to the Furies 

Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes, 
And yet I pity those they torture not. 

His hope and optimism, however, triumph over all; and the 
Furies vanish. A chorus of spirits come to console him and 
promise that he shall overcome Death. Prometheus feels, 
nevertheless, that all hope is vain without love. Conditions 
will remain as they are until Asia, the spirit of love in nature, 
will be freed. At the end of the first act one of the nymphs, 
Panthea, departs to seek Asia. She is found in a lovely vale 
and is described as a being of exquisite beauty, ''whose foot- 
steps pave the world with loveliness." Panthea then con- 
ducted Asia to the cave of Demogorgon. This being has neither 
limb, nor form, nor outline ; yet it is felt to be a living spirit. 
Asia asks it when will the destined liour arrive for the release 



POLITICS 79 

of Prometheus. The answer is ''Behold!" and just then the 
roof of the cave bursts asunder, and the chariots of the Hours 
are seen passing by. One of them stops and tells Asia that 
nightfall "will wrap heaven's kingless throne in lasting night." 
Asia is transformed before them. Misery gives place to love 
and joy. Another spirit with "dove-like eyes of hope" con- 
ducts Asia to the throne of Jupiter. 

The third act presents the catastrophe. It opens with a 
long speech of Jupiter in which he exults over what he be- 
lieves to be the approaching conquest of man's soul. Little 
does he realize, however, that his fall is at hand. The car of 
the Hour arrives with Demogorgon. At this sight Jupiter is 
filled with terror and exclaims, "Awful shape, what art thou ?" 
Demogorgon answers, "Eternity. Demand no direr name. 
Descend and follow me down the abyss." The secret is now 
revealed. Jupiter has just married Thetis and the child of 
this union is to destroy his father. The curse is fulfilled; 
Jupiter falls into the abyss. Prometheus is then released by 
Hercules. Strength ministers to wisdom, courage, and long- 
suffering Love, as a slave to its master. Prometheus is united 
with Asia; mankind with love. The Golden Age has at last 
arrived. Henceforth there is to be no tyranny nor evil of any 
kind. Love is to be supreme and is to make all wise and 
happy. Man is released from bondage and is now free to do 
as reason directs. 

The loathsome mask has fallen, the man remains, 
Scepterless, free, uncircumscribed, but man 
Equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless, 
Exempt from awe, worship, degree, the king 
Over himself ; just, gentle, wise ; but man, 
Passionless? no, yet free from guilt or pain. 
Which were, for his will made or suffered them, 
Nor yet exempt, tho' ruling them like slaves, 
From chance, and death, and mutability. 
The clogs of that whicli else might oversonr 
The loftiest star of unascended heaven, 
Pinnacled dim in the intense inane. 

The drama should end here. The tyrant is overthrown and 
man is happy. In a note on the play. Mrs. Shelley says that it 
originally had but three acts. Later on a fourth act was 



80 POLITICS 

added, a sort of hymn of rejoicing over the fulfillment of the 
prophecies with regard to Prometheus. In it specters of the 
dead hours bear time to tomb in eternity. The spirits of 
the mind reappear and chant their hymns of praise and thanks- 
giving. 

Prometheus represents mankind. He is oppressed by the 
very being, Jupiter, to whom he himself has given power. 
Jupiter must not be considered as the abstract power of moral 
evil. He represents those institutions, political and religious, 
which man himself has created. Jupiter's downfall is brought 
about by his own offspring; man himself can overthrow 
tyranny. In the marriage of Jupiter and Thetis, Shelley seems 
to portray the overweening arrogance through 5\diich a polit- 
ical tyranny invests itself with the pomp of a false glory and 
which always precedes its downfall. The form of Demogor 
gon assumed by the child at this union undoubtedly mean.s 
Kevolution, that Kevolution which follows the marriage of 
unrighteous power to arrogant display.^"^ Demogorgon may 
be looked upon, too, as Reason ; Asia, the Spirit of Love, comes 
in contact with Demogorgon, Keason, and moves it to action. 
The poet here means to image to us the profound truth, that it 
is only through contact with emotion that abstract thought 
can become roused to action and be a vital and dynamic power 
in the sphere of practical life. It is only after having met 
Demogorgon that the power of Asia is set free. If reason must 
be inspired by passion before it can prevail, "love on the other 
hand must become instinct with wisdom before it can be made 
manifest in that glory which shall save the world." 

After the interview with Demogorgon, Asia, love, is trans- 
figured, "its rosy warmth pervades the whole creation, and its 
power is revealed triumphantly supreme. This is the act 
through which, in the secret mystery of creation, the redemp- 
tion of Prometheus is achieved. Thus tbrougli a double proc- 
ess, destructive and constructive — by revolution and by love — 
is set free the human soul.""^ Rossetti regards Prometheus 
as the anthropomorphic God, created by the mind of man, and 
tyrannizing over its creator; but surely, as Miss Scudder says, 
the myth is quite as much political as theological. 



""V. D. Scudder: Introduction to Prometheus Unbound. 
•"'Ibid. 



POLITICS 81 

Prometheus Unhound was fiercely attacked in the Quarterly, 
and Shelley, thinking that Southey was the author of the 
article, wrote to him about it. Southey answered him that he 
did not write the article in question, and at the same time 
read him a lecture on the necessity of giving up his evil prin- 
ciples. Shelley felt that he was being misjudged and wrong- 
fully accused by one whom he could not suspect of ill-will, 
and this no doubt helped to keep him a radical, even if he were 
inclined at this time to become more conservative. 

During 1819, meetings were held all over the country by the 
laboring classes to consider ways and means of bettering their 
condition. On August 16, 1819, a huge one was held at St. 
Peter's Field, Manchester, with the view of urging parliamen- 
tary reform. The magistrates had previously declared that 
such a meeting would be illegal and the city authorities had 
made extensive preparations for the preservation of the peace. 
After an enormous crowd had gathered around the speakers, 
forty of the yeomanry cavalry attempted to make their way 
through the multitude to arrest the ringleaders. When it was 
found that they could not reach the platform a hasty order 
was given to three hundred hussars to disperse the crowd. 
They made a terrific charge, which resulted in the killing of 
six people and in the wounding of fifty or sixty others. The 
news of this affair roused in Shelley violent emotions of in- 
dignation and compassion. Writing to his publisher, Mr. 
Oilier, he thus comments on the affair: "The same day that 
your letter came, came the news of the Manchester work, and 
the torrent of my indignation has not yet done boiling in my 
veins. I wait anxiously to hear how the country will express 
its sense of this bloody, murderous oppression of its destroyers. 
Something must be done. What, yet, I know not." He calls 
it "an infernal business" and says that it is but the distant 
thunders of the terrible storm which is fast approaching. 
"The tyrants here, as in the French Revolution, have first shed 
blood." 

The Manchester "massacre" inspired Shelley to write the 
Mask of Anarchy. Leigh Hunt was asked to print it in The 
Examiner, but he refused. "I did not fnsert it," Hunt wrote, 
"because I thought that the public at large had not become 



'\ 



82 POLITICS 

sufficiently discerning to do justice to the sincerity and kind- 
heartedness of the spirit that walked in this flaming robe of 
verse." In this poem Shelley is not so vague and indefinite 
as he is in PrometJiciis Undound. He shows there that he has 
a grasp of the practical wants of men. ''What art thou, Free- 
dom ?" Shelley asks, and he replies : 

Thou art clothes, and fire, and food 
For the trampled midtitude — 
No — in countries that are free 
Such starvation cannot be 
As in England now we see. 

Even here Shelley exhorts his countrymen to seek reform 
through peaceful methods. He tells them to oppose meekness 
and resoluteness to violence and tyranny ; and then the tyrants 

will return with shame 
To the i)lace from which they came 
And the blood thus slied will speak 
In hot blushes on their cheek. 

There is very little recorded concerning the relations that 
existed between Robert Owen (England's first socialist of 
note) and Shelley. One of Owetfs biographers states that 
Shelley's spirit appeared to Owen at a spiritualistic seance, 
and that Owen exclaimed, "Oh, there is my old friend, Shel- 
ley." It is certain at any rate that Owen was a close friend 
of Godwin, and consequently had at least an indirect influence 
on Shelley. Queen Moh, moreover, was the gospel of the 
Owenites. 

For Shelley's later views we are indebted to his Philosophical 
View of Reform which Professor Dowdeu discusses in his 
volume Transcripts and Studies. Shelley wrote to Leigh Hunt 
on May 26, 1820, and enquired if he knew any bookseller who 
would publish an octavo volume, entitled a Philosophical 
Vieio of Reform. The plan of the work was to include chap- 
ters on: (1) The sentiment of the necessity of change; (2) its 
causes and its objects; (3) practicability and necessity of 
change; (4) state of parties as regards it; (5) probable, pos- 
sible, and desirable mode in which it should be efl'ected. The 
work was never published, however, and it is said that the 
manuscript cannot now be found. ^"^ 



"•Letter of Prof. Dowden to the author. 



POLITICS 83 

! The treatise opens with a brief historical survey of the chief 
imovements on behalf of, freedom which have taken place since 
the beginning of the Christian era. He describes historical 
Christianity as a perversion of the utterances and actions of 
the great reformer of Nazareth. ''The names borrowed from 
the life and opinions of Jesus Christ were employed as sym- 
bols of domination and imposture; and a system of liberality 
and equality, for such was the system preached by that great 
reformer, was perverted to support oppression." He eulogizes 
the philosophers of the eighteenth century and sees in the 
Government of the United States the first fruits of their teach- 
ing. Two conditions are necessary to a perfect government: 
first, "that the will of the people should be represented as it 
is" ; secondly, ''that that will should be as wise and just as 
possible." The former of these obtains in the United States ; 
and, in so far as the people are represented, "America fulfills 
imperfectly and indirectly the last and most important con- 
dition of perfect government." 

He then condemns "the device of public credit" and the new 
aristocracy which arose with it. This new order has its basis 
in fraud, as the old had its basis in force. It includes attor- 
neys, excisemen, directors, government pensioners, usurers, 
stock jobbers, with their dependents and descendants. 

What are the reforms that lie advocates? Today some of 
them would be considered too mild by even a conservative. 
He would abolish the national debt, the standing army, and 
tithes, due regard had to vested interests. He would grant 
complete freedom to thought and its expression, and make the 
dispensation of justice cheap, speedy and attainable by all. 

A reform government should appoint tribunals to decide 
upon the claims of property holders. True, political institu- 
tions ought to defend every man in the retention of property 
acquired through labor, economy, skill, genius or any similar 
powers honorably and innocently exerted. "But there is an- 
other species of property which has its foundation in usurpa- 
tion or imposture, or violence." "Of this nature is the prin- 
cipal part of the property enjoyed by the aristocracy and the 
great fundholders." "Claims to property of this kind should 
be compromised under the supervision of public tribunals." 



84 POLITICS 

From an abstract point of view, universal suffrage is just 
and desirable, but since it would lead to an attempt to abolish 
the monarchy and to civil war some other measure must be 
tried instead. Mr, Bentham and other writers have urged the 
admission of females to the right of suffrage. "This attempt,'' 
Shelley writes, "seems somewhat immature." The people- 
should be better represented in the House of Commons than 
they are at present. He would allow the House of Lords 
to remain for the present to represent the aristocracy. 

All reform should be based upon the principle of "the 
natural equality of man, not as regards property, but as re- 
gards rights." 

"Whether the reform, which is now inevitable, be gradual 
and moderate or violent and extreme depends largely on the 
action of the government." If the government refuse to act, 
the nation will take the task of reformation into its own 
hands and the abolition of monarchy must inevitably followf 
"No friend of mankind and of his country can desire that 
such a crisis should arrive." "If reform shall be begun by 
the existing government, let us be contented with a limited 
beginning with any whatsoever opening. Nothing is more idle 
than to reject a limited benefit because we cannot without 
great sacrifices obtain an unlimited one." "We shall demand 
more and more with firmness and moderation, never anticipat- 
ing but never deferring the moment of successful opposition, 
so that the people may become capable of exercising the func- 
tions of sovereignty in proportion as they acquire the posses- 
sion of it." 

The struggle between the oppressed and the oppressors will 
be merely nominal if the oppressed are enlightened and ani- 
mated by a distinct and powerful apprehension of their object. 
"The minority perceive the approaches of the development of 
an irresistible force, by the influence of the public opinion 
of their weakness on those political forms, of which no gov- 
ernment but an absolute despotism is devoid. They divest 
themselves of their usurped distinctions, and the public tran- 
quillity is not disturbed by the revolution." The true patriot, 
then, sltould endeavor to enlighten the nation and animate it 
with enthusiasm and confidence. He will endeavor to rally 



POLITICS 



85 



round oiie standard the divided friends of liberty, and make 

them forget the subordinate objects with regard to which they 

ii differ by appealing to that respecting which they are all 

agreed. 

'Shelley seems to think that revolutionary wars are seldom 
,1 or never necessary. A vigilant spirit of opposition, together 
5 with a campaign of enlightenment, will usually suffice to 
,! bring about the desired reforms. It is better to gain what 
we demand by a process of negotiation which would occupy 
twenty years than to do anything which might tend towards 
civil war. 'The last resort of resistance is undoubtedly in- 
surrection." 

The work ends with a consideration of the nature and con- 
sequences of war. ''War waged from whatever motive ex- 
tinguishes the sentiment of reason and justice in the mind." 
Shelley, following Godwin and Condorcet, was a firm be- 
liever in the perfectibility of human nature. "By perfectible," 
Godwin writes, "it is not meant that man is capable of being 
wrought to perfection. The idea of absolute perfection is 
scarcely within the grasp of human understanding." "The 
wise man is satisfied with nothing. Finite things must be 
perpetually capable of increase and advancement; it would 
argue, therefore, extreme folly to rest in any given state ^of 
improvement and imagine we had attained our summit.""" 
In a letter to E. Kitchener, July 25, 1811, Shelley writes: 
"You say that equality is unattainable; so, will I observe is 
perfection ; yet they both symbolize in their nature, they both 
demand that an unremitting tendency towards themselves 
should be made; and the nearer society approaches towards 
this point the happier it will be." 

The development of the race, they believe, has been along 
the following lines : Man emerged from the savage state under 
the attraction of pleasure and the repulsion of pain. Self- 
love, his only motive of action, made him at once social and 
industrious, led him to confound happiness with unregulated 
enjovment, made him avaricious and violent, and caused the 
strong to oppress the weak and the weak to conspire against 
the strong. Slavery and corruption have consequently fol- 

^"PoUtical Justice, IV, 2. - 



86 POLITICS 

lowed on the liberty and innocence of primitive times. But as 
man is perfectible this condition of things cannot last. The 
diffusion of knowledge together with the discoveries and in- 
ventions recently made, have already been productive of great 
progress. Humanity is now fairly started on a career of con- 
quest; the emancipation of the mind is rapidly advancing. 
Soon morality itself will come to be rationally viewed ; it will 
be universally acknowedged that there is only one law, that 
of nature ; only one code, that of reason ; only one throne, that 
of justice; and only one altar, that of concord. ^^^ Shelley had 
unbounded faith in humnn nature and believed that the down- 
fall of tyrann}' must soon take place. He believed that the 
world would resolve itself into one large communistic family, 
where every man would be independent and free. 

Godwin says that "there will be no war, no crime, no admin- 
istration of justice, as it is called, and no government. Be- 
sides tills there will be neither disease, anguish, melancholy or 
resentment."^^- The sun of reason will of itself disperse all the 
mists of ignorance and the pestilential vapors of vice. It will 
bring out all the beauty and goodness of man. Love will be 
universal; everybody will seek the good of all. Earth, Shelley 
thinks, will soon become a garden of delight. 

O Happy Earth, reality of Heaven 
Of purest Spirits thou pure dwelling-place 
Where care and sorrow, impotence and crime 
Languor, disease, and ignorance dare not come.^" 



f 



"'Flint: PhilosopJiy of History, p. 323. 
^^■Political Justice, Book 8, 9. 
""Queen Mai). 



CHAPTER IV. 

RELIGION AND rHlLOSOI'lIY 

We now come to that part of our subject which is the most 
difficult to handle — Shelley's religion. There are so many 
seeming contradictions in his utterances on this subject that 
it would appear imposaible at first sight to reconcile them and 
bring out of them a consistent form of belief. Before he went 
to Oxford he had attacked Christianity, still on his entrance 
to that university he made the required profession of belief 
in the doctrines of the (yhurch of England as by law estab- 
lished. How are we going to reconcile this with his love for 
truth? One cannot get away from the difficulty by saying 
that this profession was a mere formality. Thousands of non- 
conformists throughout the land denied themselves the bene- 
fits of a university education because they scorned to play the 
hypocrite. 

Shelley's views were fairly orthodox up to the time of his 
going to Oxford. Zastrozzi, printed in 1810, contains a bitter 
attack on atheism; and in a letter to Stockdale Shelley dis- 
claims any intention of advocating atheism in The Wandering 
Jcu\ He, no doubt, was unorthodox in his views regarding the 
nature of God; but his belief in tlie immortality of the soul 
and in the existence of a First Cause is clearly shown in a 
letter to Hogg dated January 3, 1811. He writes: "I may not 
be able to adduce proofs, but I think that the leaf of a tree, 
the meanest insect on which we trample, are in themselves 
arguments more conclusive than any which can be advanced, 
that some vast intellect animates infinity. If we disbelieve 
this, the strongest argument in support of the existence of a 
future state instantly becomes annihilated. . . . Love, 
love, infinite in extent, eternal in duration, yet allowing your 
tlieory in that point, perfectible, should be the reward; but 
can we suppose that this reward will arise, spontaneously, as 
a necessary appendage to our nature, or that our nature itself 
could be without cause — a God? When do we see effects arise 
without causes?" From this point a rapid change takes place 
in his opinions. This is the work of the sceptic Hogg, who 
sported with him, now arguing for, now against Christianity, 

87 



88 RELIGIOX AND PHILOSOPHY 

with the result that Shelley himself became sceptical. His 
disbelief is due also to the influence of the works of Godwin 
and the French materialists, Helvetius. Holbach, Coudorcet 
and Eousseau. 

In his Sjistcm of Xaturc Helvetius makes an eloquent plea 
for atheism. He denies that any kind ot spiritual substance 
exists. In the universe there is nothing but matter and mo- 
tion. Man is the result of certain combinations of matter; his 
activities are matter in motion. God. the soul, and immor- 
tality are the inventions of impostors to lash men into 
obedience and submission. In Queen Mah Shelley represents 
God and religion as the cause of evil, and scoffs at the idea of 
creation. 

From an eteruitv of idleness 
I, God, awoke.i^^ 

A blasphemous caricature of our Savior and of the doctrine 
of redemption is also there exhibited. Later on he grew to 
love Christ, although he declaimed against Christianity as long* 
as he lived. In Prometheus Unhouitd he treats our Savior 
more reverently than he did in Queen Mai). He is there in 
sympathy with the spirit of Christ, and denounces Christian- 
ity only in so far as it has abandoned "the faith he kindled." 
This change, no doubt, is due to the influence of his residence 
in Italy and of his love for the New Testament. Regarding 
the character of Christ he writes: "They (the evangelists) 
have left sufficiently clear indications of the genuine character 
of Jesus Christ to rescue it forever from the imputations cast 
upon it by their ignorance and fanatacism. We discover that He 
is the enemy of oppression and falsehood" :^^^ that He was 
just, truthful, and merciful; "that He was a man of meek and 
majestic demeanor: of natural and simple thought and habits; 
beloved by all, unmoved, solemn and serene." 

One of the greatest obstacles that prevented Shelley from 
understanding Christianity was his belief in Godwin's doctrine 
that sin is but an error of judgment. His wife writes that 
'*he believed mankind had onlv to will that there should be no 



"*Cf. Volney. Les Ruines. "Dieu apres avoir passe une eternite sans 
rien faire prit enfin le dessin de produire le monde." 
^"Essay on Christianity, p. 291. 



RELIGION AND THILOSOPHY 89 

evil aud there would be none.'' To one believing that media- 
tion is superflous in the work of sanctification, Christianity is 
almost meaningless. Three months before his death Shelley 
expressed his views with regard to Christianity as follows: 
"I differ with Moore in thinking Christianity useful to the 
world; no man of sense can think it true. ... I agree 
with him that the doctrines of the French and material phil- 
osophy are as false as they are pernicious; but still they are 
better than Christianity, inasmuch as anarchy is better than 
despotism ; for this reason, that the former is for a season, and 
the latter is eternal."^^'' 

The question whether Shelley was an atheist or not must 
not be decided on one or two extracts from his writings or 
even on any one work. True he argued against theism, but to 
call him an atheist on that account would be as logical as to 
say St. Thomas was an atheist because he advanced objections 
against the existence of God. One reason for the opinion that 
he was an atheist lies in the fact that he had a conception of 
the Deity which differed from the Puritanical one then in 
vogue. When he attempted to show the nonexistence of God 
his negation was directed against the notions of God which 
exhibited Him as a Being with human passions, as an auto- 
cratic tyrant. In his letter to Lord Ellenborough he writes: 
"To attribute moral qualities to the spirit of the universe 
... is to degrade God into man." He denied the existence 
of the God represented as ''a venerable old man, seated on a 
throne of clouds, His breast the theater of various passions 
analogous to those of humanity. His will changeable and un- 
certain as that of an earthly king.""'^ Even in Queen Mob 
we find a vague picture of his conception of God: 

Spirit of Nature! all sufficing T)ower 
Necessity ! thou mother of the world ! 
Unlike the God of human error, thou ^ 
Eequirest no prayers or praise, the caprice 
Of man's weak will belongs no more to thee 
Than do the changeful passions of his breast 
To thy unvarying harmony."^^^ 



"'Letter to Horace Smith, April 11, 1822. 
'"Letter to Lord Ellenborough, June, 1S12. 
"'Quc6» Mai). 



90 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 

But in the next caiito does he uot say explicitly, "There is iio 
God"? In a note, though, he explains that "this negation must 
be understood solely to affect a creative Deity. The hypothesis 
of a pervading Spirit coeternal with the universe remains un- 
shaken." Elsewhere he writes : "The thoughts which the word 
'God' suggest to the human mind are susceptible of as many 
variations as human minds themselves. The stoic, the platon- 
ist, and the epicurean, the polytheist, the dualist, and the 
trinitarian differ entirely in their conceptions of its meaning. 
They agree only in considering it the most awful and most 
venerable of names, as a common term to express all of mys- 
tery, or majesty, or power which the invisible world contains. 
And not only has every sect distinct conceptions of the appli- 
cation of this name, but scarcely two individuals of the same 
sect, which exercise in any degree the freedom of their judg- 
ment, or yield themselves with any candor of feeling to the 
influences of the visible, tind perfect coincidence of opinion 
to exist between them. . . . God is neither the Jupiter 
who sends rain upon the earth; nor the Venits through whom 
all living things are produced; nor the Vulcan who presides 
over the terrestrial element of lire ; nor the Vesta that pre- 
serves the light which is enshrined in the sun, the moon, and 
the stars. He is neither the Proteus, nor the Pan of the mate- 
rial world. (;But the word 'God' unites all the attributes which 
these denominations contain and is the (inter-point) and over- 
ruling spirit of all the energv and wisdom included within the 
circle of existing things. '^^^ 

But did he not write The Xcccssity of Atheism for which he 
was expelled from Oxford? Even if he did, this does not 
prove that he was an atheist. We saw already that he loved 
to advance objections and propound difficulties to people who 
thought they knew everything that can be known about a sub- 
ject. Many stoutly maintained that a valid (7 priori proof 
(usually called the ontological) can be advanced for the 
existence of God and it was against these that Shelley directed 
his artillery. "Why," Trelawny asked him once, "do you call 
yourself an atheist?" "It is a word of abuse." Shelley replied, 
"to stop discussion : a painted devil to f j-ighten the foolish ; a 
threat to imimidate the wise and good. I used it to express 



*Essay on CJiristiatiity. Shelley Memorials, p. 275. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 91 

my abhorrence of superstition. I took up the word as a 
knight took up a gauntlet in detiance of injustice."^-*' 

Leigh Hunt said that Shelley "did himself injustice with 
the public in using the popular name of the Supreme Being 
inconsiderately. He identified it solely with the most vulgar 
and tyrannical notions of a God made after the worst human 
fashion." Southey told him also that he ought not to call 
himself an athiest, since in reality he believed that the uni- 
verse is God.^-^ '^X love to doubt and to discuss," Shelley 
writes, and it is for this reason that he adopted the arguments 
of Locke, Hume, and Holbach. He does not doubt the existence 
of God; he simply doubts that it is capable of proof. ") In 
January 12, 1811, it seemed to him that he had hit upon the 
long-sought-for-proof. In a letter to Hogg he writes: '"Stay, 
I have an idea. I think I can prove the existence of a Deity — 
a First Cause. I will ask a materialist, how came this uni- 
verse at first? He will answer by chance. What chance? I 
will answer in the words of Spinoza : 'An infinite number of 
atoms had been floating fi-om all eternity in space, till at last 
one of them fortuitously diverged from its track, which drag- 
ging with it another, formed the principle of gravitation and 
in consequence the universe.' What cause produced this 
change, this chance. For where do we know that causes arise 
without their corresponding efl'ects ; at least we must here, on 
so abstract a subject, reason analogically. Was not this then 
a cause; was it not a first cause? Was not this first cause a 
Deity? Now nothing remains but to prove that this Deity has 
a care or rather that its only emi3loymeiit consists in regulating 
the present and future happiness of its creation. . . . Oh that 
this Deity were the soul of the universe, the spirit of uni- 
versal, imperishable love ! Indeed, I believe it is." ''The Deit.y 
must be judged by us from attributes analogical to our situa- 
tion." In a letter of June 11, 1811, he says God is ''the exist- 
ing power of existence." It is another word for the essence 
of the universe. True he makes use of expressions which 
would seem to^contradict the above, but it seems to me that 
these should always be interpreted in the light of his more 
explicit utterances as already explained. 



^-"Recollections by Trelawny, p. 40. 
"'Letter to E. Kitchener, Jan. 2, 1812. 



[H RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 

There was a kind of discrepancy between his interior thought 
and his exterior attitude. Apostle of reason though he was, 
he felt the necessity of appealing to other sources to quench the 
thirst for higher things. His fidelity to the doctrine of Locke, 
that all knowledge originates in the senses, did not allow him 
to proclaim this necessity. ''Negateur d'un Dieu personnel 
doiit les attributs sera lent des reflets des pauvres attributs 
humains, il desirait pourtant pouvoir les supporter et les 
croire, nuiis cette obscure tendance, ii ne sut on n'osa la 
traduire publiquement."^-/ In his poetry where he lays bare 
his soul his belief in God is manifest. It is only when he 
argues that he would seem to be an atheist. This discrepancy 
looks like deceit, but it is not. It is honesty rather than 
duplicity. He advanced only those statements which he 
thought he could prove, which he could demonstrate by the 
aid of reason.) "It does not," he writes, "prove the non- 
existence of a thing that it is not discoverable by reason; 
feeling here atfords us sufficient proof. . . . Those who 
really feel the being of a (Jod, have the best right to believe 
j^>n23 (True he goes on to say that he does not feel the being 
of Ciod, and must be content with reason ; but by this he may 
mean that he does not feel the existence of the God of the 
Christians.) 

After all, this position with regard to the proof of God's 
existence is not so very different from that of Newman. 
''Logic," says Newman, "does not really prove." It enables us 
to join issues with others ... it verifies negatively.^-* 
Newman, contrary to Locke, would inject an element of voli- 
tion into logic. "He does not, indeed, deny the possibility of 
demonstration; he often asserts it; but he holds that the 
demonstration will not in fact convince."^-^ We have really to 
desert a logical ground and to take our stand upon instinct. 

According to Shelley anything that could not be demon- 
strated should not be given to others as gospel truth. ^-® Now, 
feelings cannot be demonstrated, and hence it is that one may 
feel one thing and at the same time see that ^e senses and 

"'Koszul: La Jeunesse de Shelley, p. 132. 
"'Letter to E. Hitchener. Oct. 26. 1811. 
^"Gramviar of Assent, p. 264. 

"'Leslie Stephen: The Utilitarians, Vol. III. p. 496. 
"'Ingpen, p. 90. 



RELIUION AND rillLOSOPITY 93 

even unaided reason show that the contrary is true. "Feelings 
do not look so well as reasonings on black and white." Later 
on he said that materialism "allows its disciples to talk and 
dispenses them from thinking."^^^ The opposition which 
Shelley experienced forced him to argue. 

When Shelley wrote The Necessity of Atheism he was at 
most only an agnostic. This word was first used by Huxley 
in 1850 and if it had been in use in 1811 it may be that Shel- 
ley's pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism would have had for 
its title "The Necessity of Agnosticism." No doubt agnostics 
are often atheists, but they are not necessarily so. "A man 
may be an agnostic simply or an agnostic who is also an 
atheist. He may be a scientific materialist and no more, or 
he may combine atheism with his materialism; consequently 
while it would be unjust to class agnostics, materialists or 
pantheists as necessarily also atheists, it cannot be denied that 
atheism is clearly perceived to be implied in certain phases 
of all these systems. There are so many shades and grada- 
tions of thought by which one form of a philosophy merges 
into another, so much that is opinionative and personal 
woven into the various individual expositions of systems, that, 
to be impartially fair, each individual must be classed by him 
self as atheist or theist. Indeed more upon his own assertion 
or direct teaching than by reason of any supposed implication 
in the system he advocates must this classification be made. 
The agnostic may be a theist if he admits the existence of a 
being behind and beyond nature even while he asserts thflt 
such a being is both unprovable and unknowable.'"^^ 

With regard to the sources of Shelley's views on religion 
there is considerable difference of opinion. S. Bernthsen 
maintains that nothing contributed so much to the develop- 
ment of his genius and of his world-view as Spinoza's philos- 
ophy.^--' Professor Dowden, on the otlier linnd, holds that 
although Shelley worked at a translation of Spinoza's Trac- 
tatus Theologico Politicus several times, still "we find no 



"'Essay on Life. 

"'Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. II. 

1"'Doch ist vielleicht nichts fur die Gestaltung seines eigenartigen 
Genius und fiir die Richtung seiner poetischen Weltanschauung von so 
ma geliender bedeutung gewesen, wie die Philosophle Spinoza's." 



94 RELIGION AND PHILOSOrHY 

evidence that he received in youth any adequate or profound 
impression, as Goethe did, from the purest and loveliest spirit 
among philosophical seekers after God. Of far greater in- 
fluence with Shelley than Spinoza or Kant were those arrogant 
thinkers who prepared the soil of France for the ploughshare 
of revolution,"^^'^ And Helen liichter in two articles in English 
Studies, vol. 30, shows that some of the quotations from Shelley 
used by Miss Bernthseu nuiy be traced to other sources besides 
Spinoza. 

Shelley's notions on belief can be traced to Locke and not to 
Spinoza. In the first book of the Essay concerning the human 
understanding, Locke attempts to prove that there are no 
innate ideas. To the objection that the universal acceptance 
of certain principles is proof of their innateness, he replies 
that no principles are universally accepted. You cannot point 
to one principle of morality, he says, that is accepted by all 
peoples. Standards of morality differ in different nations and 
at different times. How then are our ideas acquired? The 
second book of the Essay is devoted to showing that they 
originate in experience. Experience, Locke teaches, is two- 
fold : Sensation, or the perception of external phenomena ; and 
Reflection, or the perception of the internal phenomena, that 
is, of the activity of the understanding itself. These two are 
the sources of all our ideas. Tn the Essay, IT, 1-2, we read : 
*'A11 ideas come from sensation antl reflection. . . . 
Whence has it (mind) all the materials of reason and knowl- 
edge? To this I answer in one word, from experience; on that 
all our knowledge is founded and from that it ultimately de- 
rives itself." In Book IV, 2, Locke says : ''Rational knowledge 
is the perception of the connection and agreement or disagree- 
ment and repugnancy of any of our ideas. . . . Prob- 
ability is the appearance of agreement upon fallible proofs. 
. . . The entertainment the mind gives this sort of propo- 
sition is called helief, assent, or opinion." 

In his notes to Queen Mat), Shelley writes: "When a propo- 
sition is offered to the mind, it perceives the agreement or dis- 
agreement of the ideas of which it is composed. A perception 
of their agreement is termed hclief. . . . Belief then is a 



""Dowden's Life, Vol. I, p. 330. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 05 

passion the streDgtli of which, like every other passion, is in 
I>recise proportion to the degrees of excitement. The degrees 
of excitement are three. Tlie senses are the sources of all 
knowledge to the mind; consequently their evidence claims 
the strongest assent. Tlie decision of the mind founded upon 
our experience, derived from these sources, claims the next 
degree. The experience of others which addresses itself to tlie 
former one, occupies the lowest degree." This reminds one of 
Locke's division of knowledge into three parts — intuitive, 
demonstrative, and sensitive. 

In the same note to Queen Mah, Shelley says: "The mind is 
active in the investigation in order to perfect the state of per- 
ception of the relation which the component ideas of the propo- 
sition bear to each, which is paHnive." And in Locke, TT, 22, 
we read : "The mind in respect of its simple ideas is wholly 
passive and receives them all from the experience and opera- 
tions of things. . . . The origin of mixed modes is, liow- 
ever, (]uite different. The mind often exercises an active power 
in making these several combinations called notions." 

According to Spinoza, judgment, perception, and volition 

are one and the same thing. "At singularis volitio et idea unum 

et idem sunt."^^^ Shelley, on the other band, says that many 

falsely imagine "that belief is an act of volition in consequence 

of which it may be regulated by the mind."^'*^ Here we find 

reflected the philosophical ideas of Sir William Drummond, 

in whose Academical Questions, Shelley writes, "the most clear 

and vigorous statement of the intellectual system is to be 
found."^'3 

According to Drummond, reasoning is entirely independent 
of volition. No man pretends that he can choose whether he 
shall feel or not. It is not because the mind previously wills it 
that one association of ideas gives place to another. It is be- 
cause the new ideas excite that attention which the old no 
longer employ. Trains of ideas may be alwaj's referred to one 
principal idea. "Whatever be the state of the soul, we always 
find it to result from some one prevailing sentiment, or idea. 



"'Ethics, II. 

'''Notes to Queen Mah. 

"^Essay on Life, ed. by Mrs. Shelley, Vol. I, p. 226. 



96 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 

which determiues the association of our thoughts and directs 
for a time the course which they take."^** We are impelled to 
action by the influence of the stronger motive. In his letter 
to Lord Ellenborough, Shelley holds that "belief and disbelief 
are utterly distinct from and unconnected with volition. They 
are the apprehension of the agreement or disagreement of the 
ideas which compose any proposition. Belief is an involun- 
tary operation of the mind, and, like other passions, its in- 
tensity is purely proportionate to the degrees of excite- 
ment."^^^ There is no certainty that Shelley was acquainted 
with the works of Spinoza when he wrote Queen Mai). It is 
likely that he obtained his Spinozan views from William Drum- 
mond. 

"It is necessary to prove," Shelley wrote, "that it (the uni- 
verse) was created; until that is clearly demonstrated we 
may reasonably suppose that it has endured from all eternity. 
. . . It is easier to suppose that the universe has existed 
from all eternity than to conceive a being (beyond its limits) 
capable of creating it."^^** Again in his Essay on a future 
state: "But let thought be considered as some peculiar sub- 
stance which permeates, and is the cause of, the animation of 
living things. Why should that substance be assumed to be 
something essentially distinct from all others and exempt from 
subjection to those laws from which no other substance is 
exempt." To Shelley everything was God. 

Spirit of Nature ! here ! 

In this interminable wilderness 

Of worlds, at whose immensity 

Even soaring fancy staggers 

Here is thy flitting temple. 

Yet not the slightest leaf 

That quivers to the breeze 

Is less instinct with thee; 

Yet not the meanest worm 

That lurks in graves and fattens on the dead 

Less shares thv eternal breath.^^' 



"*P. 17, Academical Questions. 
^''Ingpen, Vol. I, p. 327. 
"'Notes to Queen Mah. 
"'Qtteew Mai. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 97 

With Spinoza, Drummond maiiitains that two substances 
having different attributes can have nothing in common be- 
tween them ; and that there cannot be two or more substances 
of the same nature. Infinite, immaterial, eternal, substance 
has nothing in common with substance which is material, 
finite, and perishable. How is it possible, then, that the for- 
mer produced the latter? ''An immaterial substance is neces- 
sarily without extension, or solidity, and never could have 
bestowed what it never possessed, (liod is infinite and con- 
sequently his substance is the sole, universal and eternal sub- 
stance. Of this eternal substance there are two modifica- 
tions — mind and extension. Human mind is part of the 
infinite mind of God, By body is meant the mode which ex- 
presses the essence of God, inasmuch as it is contemplated as 
extended substance, in a certain linlited way, consequently 
though we do not call the Deity corporeal, as that would ex- 
press what is finite, yet we say that all extended substance is 
contained in God, since extension and mind are the eternal 
attributes of his essence."^^^ * 

Matter moves and acts according to its own laws; it pre- 
serves what we term the fair order of the universe, and it 
guides the motions of those worlds that are constituted out of 
it, by the properties wliich are inherent in it. "Why then 
should we not say that it feels, thinks and reasons in man. 
Thoughts and sentiments proceed from peculiar distributions 
of atoms in the human brain." The same necessity which 
gives us a peculiar form and constitution also gives us a 
peculiar disposition and character. From these observations 
we may conclude with certainty that all bodies are capable of 
being affected by attraction and repulsion, of making combi- 
nations, of suffering dissolution, and that they always strive 
to persevere in that state in which they are while it is suitable 
to them."^^^ 

Shelley has the same thought : 

Throughout this varied and eternal world 
Soul is the only element ; the block 
That for uncounted ages has remained 
The moveless pillar of a mountain's weight 



^"Academical Questions, p. 241. 
'"Ibid., p. 258. 



98 IJKI U;U>N AND IMUl.OSOrHY 

Is lU'livo In in«i spiril. Emmy «iraiii 
Is sontiiMit both in unilv ;ni«l p;n( 
And tho iniuutt'st ntoin couipri'licnds 
A world of loves ;iiid luitrods.'^" 

Again in a letter to Miss llitchener, November 24. ISll: "Yet 
that llower has a soul; for what is soul but that which makes 
an organized being to be what it is? . . . 1 will say then 
that all nature is animated; that microscopic vision, as it has 
diseovere«l to us millions of animated beings, so might it, if 
extended, tind that nature itself was but a mass of organized 
animation." 

Southey told Shelley that he was a pantheist and not an 
atheist. He (^Southey) says: "1 t>nght not to call myself an 
atheist, since in reality 1 belie\t* that (he universe is (lotl." 
"Pantheism in its narrower and proper philost)phic sense is 
any system which expressly (not merely by implication) re- 
gards the t'lniie W(uld as simply a mode, limitation, part or 
aspect of the luie eternal biMug; and of such a nature, that 
from the standpoint of this Heing no distinct existence can be 
attributed to it."**' In so far as Shelley gives to nature the 
attributes of (lod he is a pantheist. This he often does. Thus, 
in thilian (Did Maddalo, "sacred nature"; in The RcroK of 
/.s7(////. \". 11. "dread natuiv"; and in the Ixcfiitafion of J)('isni 
he speaks of "divine nature." Often though he distinguishes 
between Ood and Nature; ami in this respect dilVers from 
Spinoza and those who are pantheists in the stricter use of 
the term. Thus in The Ixtrolt of Islam, IX. 14, "by Cotl and 
nature and necessity." 

There is another ditl'erence IxMween the i>antheism of Shelley 
and that of Spinoza. Shelley does not nmke any ditterence 
between men. animals and plants. They are all about on the 
same level. Spinoza on the other hand makes man the king 
and center of the Universe. 

Shelley may have gotten his pantheistic views from Volney 
and lU>lbach as well as from Dnunmond. In the Si/stcnic ilc la 
Nature, II. c. \'l. we read: "Tout nous pronne done que cc 
n'est pas hors de la nature que nous devons chercher la 



"'Queen Ma^, IV, p. 15. 

'"Baldwin. J. M.: Dictionaii/ of Philosophy and Psychology. 1902. 



HKj.unos AND rnii-(jsoriiy 99 

Divijiilx;. (^ujiiid nouH voimIi-ojih en Jivoir uiie ulOc., (IIkouh <juc 
Ja nature e.st Dicu." 

A cliaracterJHtic of IiIh luter ijjinllicisiii Ih LIkiI i(, idoilifiiiH 
(Jo<! willi love. '(Jntiil, Kpiril, (I<'('|)(;kI. love! Whicli ruhjHl, and 
doHl move all tliinj^H which live and are.'"^" Again, "() Power! 
. . . thou which interpenetrateHt all thingH and without 
which thin glorious world were a 1)1 ind and I'ormleHH chaoH, 
J^ove, author of good, (»od. King, l*'alh(;r.""' 

Plato inountH up from HeuHuouH love to int(!lle<ii}il lov(;, 
and KO does Hhelley. In the JJejemx of PocLri/, MI, h. 125, 
he showH UH how another great poet accompliHlu'd thiH. 
"HiH (Dante'H) sipotheoHiH of Jieatrice in J'aradiHe and the 
gradatioDH of IiIh own love and her lov(dineKH, by whi(!h hh by 
wtepH he teiguH hiniKelf to have aHcended to the throne of the 
SupreriK! cause, iH the mont gloriouH imagination of modern 
poetry." One would be in thiH higlnist Ht;ige, according to 
Spinoza, wh(;n one haw attained the intellectual love of Ood. 
*'ThiH intellectual love of God iH the highcHt kind of virtue 
and it not only mak(;K man free, but it confcirn immortality.'"^* 

Hhelly mjik(*K all thingn love one anollK^r. '^riiuH in Adonain: 

All baser IhingK pant with life's Kacred thirnt; 

DilluHe themselvcH; und Hpend in Iov(;'h <Jelight, 

The beauty and the joy of their renewed might (Ht. \U). 

This harmonizcK with his earlier viewK concf^rning injinimate 
objects. We saw ha believ«;d that ihay ;ill had life, that they 
were all poHsesHed of the "Kpirit of Nature." In Prometheus 
Unbound he Hpeaks of ''this true, fair world of thingH a sea 
reflecting love," J.,ove drawH man to man. It iH the nine qua 
non of man'H exiHtence. HIh love is founded in beauty as per- 
ceived by the senses. The Rj)iril of Beauty and the Kijiril of 
Love are one. 

Great Hpirlt, deepest Love! 

Which rnlest und dost move 
All things which live and are 

. . . Who sittest in thy star o'er Ocean's western floor 
Spirit of Beauty."^ 



"'Ode to Naples, Epode II. E. 
^"Coli8xeum, III, 6. 

'"Turner: History of Philosophy, p. 483. 
""Ode to Naples, Epode II, B. 



100 KKLUnON AND I'lTlLOSOPHY 

We love that which is beautiful. *'Love is a goiug out of one's 
owu nature, or an identification of ourselves with the beautiful 
which exists in thought, action or person not our own."*^*^ 
The beauty of the world leads us step by step to the love of 
pure Beauty, Love itself. In the Sifniposium, Diotima explains 
how the love of beautiful objects leads on to the conception of 
perfect abstract beauty, "eternal uuproduced, indestructible. 
. , . All other things are beautiful through a participation 
of it . . . When any one ascending from the correct sys- 
tem of Love begins to contemplate this supreme beauty he 
already touches the cousummation of his labor."^*' The earth 
is not Beauty, Love, Divinity itself; it is but the shadow of 
God. 

How glorious are thou, Earth ! And if thou be 
The shadow of some spirit lovelier still. '^* 
Again 

The awful shadow of some unseen Power 
Floats unseen amongst us.^*" 

This reminds us of platonism. The "Spirit" is the Idea, and 
the "shadow" is the earth. Plato's Idea transcends the world 
of concrete existence. The two functions of the Idea are to 
cause things to be known and to constitute their reality. It is 
at the same time one and niany.'""^ It stood out most promi- 
nently in the mind of Plato as the Idea of Good or Beauty 
by which he meant God Himself. He says that the shadow of 
the power of intellectual Beauty inspires us and not intellec- 
tual Beauty itself. AVe could not endure that. Intellectual 
Beauty is God. 

Since then Shelley's Great Spirit, Spirit of Xature, Liglit, 
Beauty, Love, resembles the "Ideas" of Plato very closely, and 
since these Ideas have been identified by St. Augustine and 
other Christian platonists with the "mind of God," it is 
doubtful that Shelley was an atheist in the strict sense of the 
term. His poetry at least will tend to imbue us with a realiza- 
tion of God's Presence. 



'**Def. of Poetry, III. 3. 

'•■Forman's ed. Prose Works. Vol. III. p. 219. 

'"Prom. Unbound, Act. II. sc. 3. p. 267. 

'"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty. 

'''Turner, p. 102. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 101 

That Light whose smile kindles the Universe, 
That Beauty in which all things work and move, 
That Benediction which the eclipsing curse 
Of birth can quench not, that sustaining Love 
Which througli the web of being blindly wove 
By man and beast and earth and air and sea. 
Burns bright or dim, ;is each are miirors of 
The fire for which all tliirst; now beams on me. 
Consuming the last clouds of cold mortality.'^^ 

In Ids later years Shelley became more and more of an 
idealist. Towards the beginning of 1812 he became acquainted 
with Berkeley's writings at the instance of Southey. Ideas, 
according to Berkeley, are communicated to the mind through 
the immediate operation of the Deity without the intervention 
of any actual matter. All our ideas are words which God 
speaks to us. Matter is only a perception of the mind. 

this Whole 



Of suns, and worlds, and men, and beasts, and flowers, 

With all the silent or tempestuous workings 

By which they have been, are, or cease to be, 

Is but a vision ; all Hiat it inhabits 

Are motes of a sick eye, bubbles and dreams; 

Thought is its cradle and its grave, nor less 

The future and the past are idle shadows 

Of thoughts eternal flight — they have no being: 

Nought is but that which feels itself to be.^" 

When Panthea, in Prometheus Unhound, describes to Asia a 
mysterious dream, suddenly Asia sees another shape pass be- 
tween her and the "golden dew" which gleams througli its 
substance. "What is it?" she asks. "It is mine other dream," 
replies Panthea. "It disappears," exclaims Asia. "It passes 
now into my mind," replies Panthea. To Shelley dreams are 
as visible as the dreamers, and our minds are simply a collec- 
tion of dreams. Reality is reduced to the unsubstantiality of 
a dream, and dreams are the only reality. 

With regard to his belief in the immortality of the soul, we 
have the same diflficulty and the same solution. All that we 
see or know, he says, perishes, and although life and thought 
differ from everything else, still this distinction does not afford 



'"Adonais, st. 54, 
'"Hellas. 



102 RELIGION AND PHILOSOrHY 

US any proof that it survives that period beyond which we 
have no experience of its existence. The quotations, though, 
which can be twisted into an expression of disbelief in the 
immortality of the soul"^ are less numerous than those ex- 
pressing disbelief in the existence of God. His writings teem 
with expressions of belief in existence after death. '"You have 
witnessed one suspension of intellect in dreamless sleep 
. . . you witness another in death. From the first, you 
well know that you cannot infer any diminution of intellectual 
force. How contrary then to all analogy to infer annihilation 
from death/'^^* Again, "Whatever may be his true and final 
destination there is a spirit within him at enmity with noth- 
ing and dissolution."^^^ 

Plato claimed that the soul preexisted long before it was 
united to the body. In its supercelestial home "the soul en- 
joyed a clear and unclouded vision of ideas; and that, although 
it fell from that happy state and was steeped in the river of 
forgetfulness it still retains an indistinct memory of those 
heavenly intuitions of the truth."^^^ Shelley was so impressed 
with the truth of this theory that he once walked up to a 
woman who was carrying a cliild in her arms and asked her 
if her child would tell them anything about preexistence. He 
believed that after death the soul returns to Plato's world of 
Ideas whence it came. 

Whilst burning through the inmost veil of heaven 

The soul of Adonais, like a star 

Beacons from the abode where the eternal are.^^^ 

As to the nature of the soul his early views reflect the influence 
of Dr. G. Aberthney, who believed in a kind of universal 
animism. On January G, 1811, he writes to Hogg: "I think we 
may not inaptly define soul as the most supreme, superior 
and distinguished abstract appendage to tlie nature of any- 
thing." Again, "I conceive (and as is certainly capable of 
demonstration) that nothing can be annihilated, but that 
everytliing appertaining to nature, consisting of constituent 



""Cf. Shelley's Essay on a Future State. 
"'Letter to Eliz. Kitchener. June 25, 1811. 
"'Essay on Life. 

""Turner: History of Philosophy, p. 110. 
"''Ado7iais, st. 55. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 103 

parts infinitelj^ divisible, is in a continual change, then do 1 
suppose — and I think I have a right to draw this inference — 
that neither will soul perish. "^"^^ 

In Queen Mah we find Shelley believing in the doctrine of 
necessity. There he denies the freedom of the will. Later on 
he exempted the will from the law of necessity, but not the 
intelligence or reason of man. His views on this subject were 
derived principally from Cilodwin. "Every human being," says 
Godwin, "is irresistably impelled to act precisely as he does 
act. In the eternity which preceded his birth a chain of causes 
was generated, which, operating under the name of motives, 
make it impossible that any thought of his mind and any 
action of his life should be otherwise than it is."^'^" 

The actions of every human being are determined by the 
dictates of reason ; and, like tlie oi)erations of nature, are 
subject to the law of necessity. This idea of necessity is ob- 
tained from our experience of the uniformity of the phenomena 
of nature. Similar causes invariably produce the same effect. 
In the material world an immense chain of causes and effects 
appears, the connection between which we cannot understand. 
The same thing is true of the moral world. There, motive is 
to voluntary action what cause is to effect in the physical 
order. A man cannot resist the strongest motive any more 
than a stone left unsuspended can remain in the air. Will is 
simply an act of the judgment determined by logical impres- 
sions. The murderer is no more responsible for his deed than 
the knife with which the crime was committed. Both were set 
in motion from without; the knife, by material impulse; the 
man, by inducement and persuasion. To hate a murderer, 
then, is as unreasonable as to hate his weapon. Educate him, 
but do not punish. In the material world 

No atom of this turbulence fulfills 

A vague and unnecessitated chance. 
Or acts but as it must and ought to act.^*"'^ 

In the same way 

Xot a thought, a will, an act. 
No working of the tyrant's moody mind, 

"•June 20. 1811. 

'"Political Justice. Book VI. 11. 
"^Queen Mab, Canto VI, p. 24. 



104 UELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 

Nor oue misgiving of the slaves who boast 
Their servitude, to hide the shame they feel, 
Nor the events enchaining every will, 
That from the depths of unrecorded time 
Have drawn all-inllnencing virtue, pass 
Unrecognized, or unforeseen by thee, 
Soul of the Universe !^*'^ 

In his notes to Queen Mah. Shelley admits that the doctrine 
of necessity tends to introduce a great cliange into the estab- 
lished notions of morality, and utterly to destroy Religion. 
It teaches that no event could happen but as it did happen; 
and that if God is the author of good He is also the author 
of evil. 

Shelley soon broke away from the teaching of Godwin and 
Bpinoza with regard to the freedom of tlie will. He main- 
tained that the will is unrestrainedly free and that man is Jiis 
own master. Thus, *'Man whose will has power when all be- 
side is gone'' [The Rcrolt, VIIT, 10). "Such intent as reno- 
vates the world a will omnipotent" (Ibid., II, -il). "Who if 
ye dared might not aspire less than ye conceive of power" 
(Ibid., XI, 16). 

Man can obtain freedom if he really desires it. Godwin held 
that freedom from external restraints leads to freedom of tlie 
mind, whereas Shelley sees in external political freedom the 
blossoming forth of already obtained freedom of the soul. 
The interior freedom is obtained through self-abnegation and 
the determination of the will. Mrs. Shelley says in the intro- 
duction to Prometheus Unhound that Shelley believed man- 
kind had only to will that there should be no evil and there 
would be none. Evil is not something inherent in creation, 
but an accident that may be expelled. "But we are taught," 
writes Shelley, "by the doctrine of necessity, that there is 
neither good nor evil in the universe, otherwise than as the 
events to which we apply these epithets have relation to our 
own peculiar mode of being."^"- 

This view is very similar to that of Drummond. He held that 
order and disorder have no place but in our own imagination, 
and are the modes in which we survey the eternal and necessary 



"'Ibid. 

"'Notes to Queen Mab. 



RELIGION AND THILOSOPHY 105 

series of things. Ideas of right and wrong depend upon the 
circumstances in which people are placed. They vary so much 
that we do not find the standard of morality to be precisely 
the same in any two countries of the world. Good and evil 
are modes of thinking; and what appears good to one person 
may appear bad to another, and neither good nor bad to a 
third. This is Spinoza's doctrine: "Bonum et malum quod 
attinet, nihil etiam positivum in rebus, in se scilicet con- 
sideratis, indicant, nee aliud sunt praeter cogitandi modos, 
sen motiones, quas formamus ex eo, (juod res ad invicem com- 
paramus nam una eademque res potest eodem tempore bona 
et mala, et etiam indiffereus esse." Ethics, IV. 

Shelley has two versions of the origin of good and evil. The 
first is manichean and represents them as twin genii of bal- 
anced power and opposite tendencies ruling the world. "This 
much is certain : that Jesus Christ represents God as the foun- 
tain of all goodness, the eternal enemy of pain and evil. . , . 
According to Jesus Christ, and according to the indisputable 
facts of the case, some evil spirit has dominion in this imper- 
fect world."^"^ Good is represented by the morning star and 
evil by a comet. According to the second version, which is 
Shelley's own view, evil has not the same power that good has, 
and came later into the world. Evil is strong because man 
permits it to exist, and must disappear as soon as man wills 
this. Since it could be entirely eliminated, it is not an in- 
tegral part of the world. 

Man is naturally good. His vices are the result of bad edu- 
cation. They are nothing but errors of judgment. Let truth 
prevail; educate men properly, and then vice will entirely 
disappear. Shelley also writes: 

Let priest-led slaves cease to proclaim that man 
Inherits vice and misery, when force 
And falsehood hang even over the cradled babe 
Stifling with rudest grasp all natural good. 

Godwin thinks that the influence of the emotions and pas- 
sions has been overestimated. It is not true that they can 
force one to act in opposition to the dictates of one's reason. 
Thev maintain their hold on men but bv the ornaments with 



"'Shelley Memorials, Essay on Christianity, p. 283. 



106 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 

which they are decked out; and these are the things which 
compel a man to yield. Reduce sensual acts to their true 
nakedness and they would be despised. Whatever power the 
passions have to incline men to act will, in future, be offset 
by consideration of justice and self-interest. Many have over- 
come the influence of pain and pleasure in the past by the 
energies of intellectual resolution, and what these accom- 
plished can be done by all. Reason and truth, then, are suffi- 
cient to change the whole complexion of society. They will 
ultimately i)revail; and then all will be wise and good. The 
following from Shelley is an echo of this. 

And when reason's voice 
Loud as the voice of nature shall have waked 
The nations ; and mankind perceive that vice 
Is discord, war, and misery ; that virtue 
Is peace and happiness and harmony 

XX 

How sweet a scene will earth become I 
Of purest spirits a pure dwelling-place, 
Sj^mphonious with the planetary spheres. 

Godwin went so far as to say that eventually all sickness 
would disappear: and even in this Shelley follows his master- 
Shelley finds this view of evil in the teaching of Christ. 
"According to Jesus Christ," he writes, "some evil spirit has 
dominion in this imperfect world. But there will come a time 
when the human mind shall be visited exclusively by the in- 
fluence of the benignant power. ''^"* 

All the philosophists who influenced Shelley agreed in this 
that virtue leads to happiness. The purpose of virtuous con- 
duct, says Godwin, ''is the production of happiness." So with 
Shelley "virtue is peace, and happiness, and harmony." Vir- 
tue, says Godwin, is the offspring of the understanding; and 
vice is always the result of narrow views. "Selfishness," writes 
Shelley, "is the offspring of ignorance and mistake; . . . 
disinterested benevolence is the product of a cultivated imagi- 
nation, and has an intimate connection with all the arts which 



*Essay on Christianity. 



RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 107 

add ornament or dignity or power, or stability to the social 
state of man.""^ 

S'helley does not believe in the existence of hell. He thinks 
that this doctrine is incompatible with the goodness of God. 
"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, that ye may 
be the sons of your Heavenly Father, Who makes the sun to 
shine on the good and the evil, and the rain to fall on the just 
and unjust." How monstrous a calumny have not impostors 
dared to advance against the mild and gentle author of this 
just sentiment, and against the whole tenor of his doctrines 
and his life overflowing with benevolence and forbearance and 
compassion. '"'"' God, he says, would only be gratifying his 
revenge under pretence of satisfying justice were he to inflict 
pain upon another for no better reason than that he de- 
served it. 



'Speculations on Morals, Vol. II, prose works, p. 260. 
^Shelley Memorials. Essay on Christianity, p. 279. 



CHAPTER V 

RADICALISM IN CONTEMPOUAKY POETRY 

A poet is the product ot' his time. Shelley observes that 
there is a resemblance, which does not depend on their own 
will, between the writers of any particular age. They are all 
subjected to a common influence "which arises out of a com- 
bination of circumstances belonging to the time in which they 
live, though each is in a degree the author of the very influence 
by which his being is thus pervaded." Hence it is that the 
works of any poet cannot be thoroughly appreciated unless 
the spirit that pervaded the life of the jjeriod be understood. 
This is particularly true of the poetry of Shelley. It embodies 
the aspirations and ideals of the philosophers of his time. Its 
themes are liberty, justice and revolt. On every side are hear<l 
protests against conventionality, against government, and 
against religion. The philosophers of the French Revolution 
are hailed as the saviors of society and their theories put forth 
as a panacea for all human ills. Shellej^ is the high water 
mark of the waves of revolt which threatened to inundate the 
country. A brief investigation, then, of the poetical atmos- 
phere of the end of the eighteenth century will help us in our 
study of the sources of his radicalism. 

There can be no doubt but contemporarj' literature had 
some influence on his sensitive nature. ''The writings of the 
future laureate (Southey) as likewise of Wordsworth and 
Coleridge, and Landor's Gchir were among those for which 
Shelley in early youth had a particular predilection."^"" Since 
the influence of Southey soon began to decline on account of 
his fulsome praise of George III, we shall confine our attention 
to Wordsworth and Coleridge. "One word in candor," Shelley 
writes, "on the manner in which the study of contemporary 
writing may have modified my composition. I am intimately 
persuaded that the peculiar style of intensive and comprehen- 
sive imagery in poetry which distinguishes modern writers 
has not been as a general power the product of tlie imitation 



"'W. M. Rdssetti: Memoir of Shelley, p. 33. 
108 



RADICALISiVr IN CONTEMTORARY POETRY 109 

of any particular one. It is impossible that any one contem- 
porary with such writers (Wordsworth and Coleridge were 
specified at first) as stand in the front ranks of literature of 
the present day can conscientiously assure themselves or 
others that their language and tone of thought may not have 
been modified by the study of the productions of these extra- 
ordinary intellects.'"*'^ 

Radicalism, we said, was the characteristic of this period 
and this extended both to the form and the matter of poetry. 
Byron characterizes one eminent poet as ''the mild apostate 
from poetic rule."^^" 

During the greater part of the eighteenth century conserva- 
tism and classicism were in the ascendant. After the Revo- 
lution of 1688 everything medieval and Catholic was looked 
upon with suspicion. Old customs and festivities were allowed 
to fall into disuse. Compared with the past it was a material 
age. In the early part of the century agriculture and com- 
merce flourished and with this advance in material prosperity 
came the decline of romanticism. "Correctness" in form and 
thought is the guiding light of prince and peasant, of poet and 
philosopher. Imagination is concerned almost entirely with 
society and fine manners. Pope's themes are beaux and belles, 
pomatum, billets-doux, and patches. He preferred the artificial 
to the natural. Form, imitation of the classics, is to him 
and the men of that period, the all important matter in litera- 
ture. In his Essay on Criticism he tells us again and again 

Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem 
To copy nature is to copy them. 

"To his immediate successors Pope was the grand exemi»l:n' 
of what a poet should be,""° but unfortunately he was followed 
by a horde of imitators whose only claim on the muse of poetry 
was ability to turn out heroic couplets. As a consequence 
])oetry became a cold, lifeless affair, devoid of imagination and 
"divorced from living nature and the warm spontaneity of the 
heart.""^ 

A reaction against this pseudo-classicism was inevitable. 

"'Shelley's notebook. Printed for W. K. Bixby, St. Louis, 1911. 

"'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. 

""P. J. Lennox in the Catholic Encylopedia, Vol. XII. 

•"T. Arnold; Manual of English Literature, p. 304. 



110 RADICALISM IN CONTEMPORARY POETRY 

That small but constantly flowing stream of romanticism 
which is found in the works of Thomson, Blake, Warton and 
Gray, increased in size until it broke loose in the Lyrical 
Ballads of 1798. This was the joint work of Coleridge and 
Wordsworth. The two poets met for the first time in 1796. 
Coleridge was then 24 years of age and Wordsworth but two 
years his senior. In July, 1797, Wordsworth and his sister 
moved to Alfoxden, in Somersetshire, that they might be near 
Coleridge, who was living with his wife at Nether- Stowey. 
They were, as Coleridge has said somewhere, three people but 
one soul. A good description of the relationship between them 
is given in Dorothy Wordsworth's Alfoxden Journal, and in 
Coleridge's The Nightingale; a conversation poem. Their 
most frequent topic of conversation was "the power of exciting 
the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the 
truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest of novelty 
by the modifying colors of imagination.""^ From these con- 
versations originated the plan of the Lyrical Ballads. The 
work was divided into two parts. Coleridge was to direct his 
attention to romantic and supernatural characters and to 
enshroud these with a human interest and a semblance of 
truth sufficient to engage our interest and attention. Words- 
worth, on the other hand, was to produce the same effect by 
giving the charm of novelty to objects chosen from ordinary 
life. It seemed to them that the beauty of a landscape often 
depended on the accidents of light and shade; that moonlight 
or sunset sometimes transformed an uninviting scene into one 
of entrancing beauty ; and so they believed that they could dif- 
fuse the glow of their imagination over any object and make 
it attractive. As might be expected the publication of the 
Ballads did not meet with success. The change from the 
stereotyped verse of the age to these carelessly formed effusions 
was too much for the critics. Some scoffed at them; others 
thought they were being hoaxed. The subjects dealt with in 
these poems were long considered as unfit for poetry; and of 
course the conservative felt it his bounden duty to protest 
against the innovation. In the second edition of the Ballads, 



'"Coleridge: Biographia Literaria, Ch. XIV. 



RADICALISM IN CONTEMPORARY POETRY 111 

which was entirely Wordsworth's own work, an attempt is 
made to justify this radical departure from the beaten path. A 
poet, he explains, is a genius, and should not be hampered by 
any conventions of art or traditions of society. His imagina- 
tion is the purifying fire which transmutes the rough ore of the 
commonplace into the choice gold of literature. "Good poetry," 
he writes, "is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." 
"He (the poet) is a man speaking to men; a man, it is true, 
endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and 
tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature and 
a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common 
among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and 
volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit 
of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar voli- 
tions and passions as manifested in the goings of the universe, 
and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find 
them."^" This is a good picture of Shelley. "With a spiritual 
gaze turned first inward, on his own passions and volitions, 
and then turned outward upon the universe, Shelley looked in 
vain for external objects answering to the forms generated by 
his dazzling imagination."^'* 

Meter and poetic diction, Wordsworth says, are something 
altogether accidental to poetry, and consequently there is no 
essential difference between the language of poetry and that 
of prose. "The distinction," Shelley writes, "between poets 
and prose writers is a vulgar error. Plato was essentially a 
poet."""^ Wordsworth contends, too, that the proper language 
of poetry is the ordinary language of the rustic. The excellence 
of poetry depends not so much on the dignity of the words used 
as on their capacity to arouse emotions. "The language of 
poets," Shelley writes, "is vitally metaphorical ; that is, it 
marks the before-unapprehended relations of things and per- 
petuates their apprehension; until words which represent 
them, become, through time, signs for portions or classes of 
thought instead of pictures of integral thoughts. . . . Every 



"'Preface to Lyrical Ballads. 
"'Courthope, Vol., VI, p. 314. 
'"Shelley's Defence of Poetry, p. 9. 



ll'^ RADICALISM IN CONTEMPORARY POETRY 

original language near to its source is in itself the chaos of a 
cyclic poem.""" 

Not only Shelley's principles as regards "the use of lan- 
guage" but also his "tone of thought" was influenced by 
Wordsworth. Coleridge and Wordsworth removed the sphere 
of poetry from social action to philosophical reflection; they 
exchanged the ancient method, consisting in the ideal imita- 
tion of external objects, for an introspective analysis of the 
impressions of the individual mind."^ Many of Wordsworth's 
poems are records of the moods of his own soul, and of phases 
of his life; so also are Shelley's A brief examination of some 
of Wordsworth's works will serve to make this clear. 

Wordsworth planned an epic poem, The Recluse, of which 
The Prelude, or introduction, and The Excursion are the only 
parts extant. In these two poems we can trace out the history 
of his radicalism. The Prelude is his autobiography; and The 
Excursion supplements what is lacking to a thorough revela- 
tion of the workings of his mind. He begins The Prelude by 
telling about his childhood and schooltime, his residence at 
Cambridge, vacation and love for books. He then treats of 
his first trip to the Continent and his residence in London. 
Book IX is concerned with his second visit to France in 1791. 
While there he mixed up with all classes 

. . . and thus ere long 
Became a patriot; and my heart was all 
Given to the people, and ray love was theirs.""® 

It was natural for him to do so, because he lived from boyhood 
among those whose claims on one's respect did not rest on 
accidents of wealth or blood. He describes his friend General 
Beaupis, who inoculated him with enthusiasm for the cause of 
the Revolution. In The Revolt of Islam Shelley describes Dr. 
Lind, who taught him to curse the king. Hatred of absolute 
rule, where the will of one is law for all, was becoming 
stronger in Wordsworth every day. After the September 



""Shelley's Defence of Poetry, p. 5. 
'"Courthupe: History of Poetry, Vol. VI, p. 192. 
"'Riverside Edition, p. 217. 



RADICALISM IN CONTEMPORARY POETRY 113 

massacres and the imprisonment of the king he returned to 
Paris. 

And ranged with ardor heretofore unfelt 
The spacious city/^** 

He was about to cast in his lot with the Revolutionists when he 
was forced to return to England. The excesses of the Revolu- 
tion, however, deprived him of some of the hopes that he 
placed in it. At that time his "day thoughts" were most 
melancholy. When news came of the fall of Robespierre his 
hopes began to revive. The earth will now march firmly to- 
wards righteousness and peace. 

Oh ! pleasant exercise of hope and joy ! 

For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood 

Upon our side, us who were strong in love ; 

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. 

But to be young was very Heaven. ^^"^ 

In Canto V of The Revolt of Islam Shelley describes how 
oppressors and oppressed are persuaded to forego revenge. 
Love has conquered and a new era of peace and happiness is 
about to begin. 

To hear, to see, to live, was on that morn 
Lethean joy. 

Although Shelley does not dwell on details as Wordsworth 
does, still there is a striking similarity between the spirit of 
parts of The Excursion and that of many of Shelley's poems. 
An extract from The Revolt of Islam will help to verify this. 

Thoughts of great deeds were mine, dear friend, when first 

The clouds that wrapt me from this world did pass. 

I do remember well the hour which burst 

My spirit's sleep. A fresh May-dawn it was, 

When I walked forth upon the glittering grass, 

And wept, I know not why; until there rose ■ 

From the near schoolroom voices that, alas! 

Were but one echo from a world of woes. 

The harsh and grating strife of tyrants and of foes. 



•"Ibid., p. 239. 

""Ibid., Book XI, p. 265. 



114 RADICALISM IX COXTKMrORARY I'OETRY 

And then I clasped my hands and looked around — 
But none was near to mock my streaming eyes. 
Which poured their drops upon the sunny ground — 
So without shame I spoke: "I will be wise, 
And just, and free, and mild, if in me lies 
Such power, for I grow weary to behold 
The selfish and the strong still tyrannize 
Without reproach or check. 

Wordsworth's joy, however, was short-lived . In 1796 Na- 
poleon started on a campaign of conquest and this completely 
shattered Wordsworth's faith in the Revolution. When he saw 
that the French were changing a war of self-defense into one 
of subjugation, losing sight of all which they themselves had 
struggled for, he became ''vexed with anger and sore with 
disappointment." About the year 1793 he fell under the 
influence of Godwin, and it is to his doctrines that he now 
turned for solace. Godwin, as we have seen, makes reason the 
sole guide and rule of conduct. Custom, law, and every kind 
of authority are inimical to the well-being of humanity. 
Wordsworth then at this time began dragging all precepts, 
creeds, etc., "like culprits to the bar of reason, now believing, 
now disbelieving,'' 

till, demanding formal proof 

And seeking it in everything, I lost 

All feeling of conviction, and, in fine, 

Sick, wearied out with contrarieties. 

Yielded up all moral questions in despair.^®^ 

He had sounded radicalism to its lowest depths and found it 
wanting. 

I drooped 
Deeming our blessed reason of the least use 
Where wanted most. 

In The Prelude Wordsworth records how he had in youth 
moments of supreme inspiration, and had taken vows binding 
himself to the service of the spirit he felt in nature. 

To the brim 
My heart was full, I made no vows but vows 
Were made for me ; bond unknown to me 
Was given, that I should be, else sinning greatly 
A dedicated spirit. 

"'The Prelude. Book XI, p. 272. 



RADICALISM IN CONTEMPORARY POETRY 115 

So with Shelley in Alastor: 

Mother of this unfathomable world! 
Favor my solemn song! for I have loved 
Thee ever and thee only. 

The sense of life and the sense of mystery are seen in Alastor 
and these are due to the influence of Wordsworth. 

During all this time Wordsworth wrote very little poetry 
embodying his radical sentiments. The only important work 
of this kind which appeared is his drama, The Bat'derers. 
Even this cannot be called a radical word as it marks his re- 
jection of Godwinism. Marmaduke loves Idonea, Herbert's 
daughter, and is told that she is about to be sacrificed by her 
father to the lust of a neighboring noble. Oswald, the 
Godwinian, persuades Marmaduke, by dint of reasoning, to 
disregard the musty command of tyrants, to obey the only law 
"that sense submits to recognize," and kill blind Herbert. 
This Marmaduke does, but later on finds out his mistake and 
tells Idonea towards the end that 

Proof after proof was pressed upon me; guilt 
Made evident, as seemed, by blacker guilt. 
Whose impious folds enwrapped even thee.^^^ 

He realizes that he has committed a crime ; that it is the height 
of folly to ignore instinct and tradition, and so he wanders 
over waste and wild 

till anger is appeased 
In heaven, and mercy gives me leave to die. 

Although the radicalism of his early years does not reveal 
itself to any great extent in his poetry of that time, still it is 
responsible for his largest work. The Excursion. This poem 
is an attempt to reconstruct a new theory of life out of the 
ruins of the French Kevolution. According to Wordsworth, 
the poet is a teacher. "I wish," he says, "to be considered as 
a teacher or as nothing." Shelley says that "poets are the 
unacknowleged legislators of the world."^^^ His Revolt of 
Islam and other poems attempt to inculcate "a liberal and 
comprehensive morality." What particularly distinguishes 

"•Act. V, scene S. 
"'Essay on Poetry. 



ll(J RADICALISM IN OOXTK.MrOKAUV TOETKY 

Wordsworth and Shelley from preceding poets is that they 
moralize and draw lessons from their own experiences. The 
two principal characters in The Ejccursion — the Solitary and 
the Wanderer — represent "S^'ordsworth the radical and Words- 
worth the conservative. The Wanderer, who has had a long 
experience of men and things, derives from nature moral 
reflections of various kinds. In his walks he meets the 
Solitary, a gloomy, morose sceptic. This man tells about his 
desire to find peace and contentment; his delight in nature; 
and tiie happiness of his wedded life. The death of his wife 
and children filled him with despair. He then begins to ques- 
tion the ways of God to men and exclaims 

Then my soul 
Turned inward — to examine of what stuflf 
Times fetters are composed; and life was put 
To inquisition, long and profitless !^** 

He is aroused from these abstractions by the report that the 
dread Bastile has fallen ; and from the wreck he sees a golden 
palace rise 

The appointed seat of equitable law 

The mild paternal sway 

. . . from the blind mist issuing 

I beheld 
Glory, beyond all glory ever seen. 

In Queen Mah Shelley has a somewhat similar phrase: 

Hope was seen beaming through the mists of fear. 

He thus becomes interested once more in life; and joins in the 
chorus of Liberty singing in every grove. 

War shall cease 
Did ye not hear that conquest is abjured? 
Bring garlands, bring forth choicest flowers, to deck 
The tree of Liberty.^®^ 

Society then became his bride and "airy hopes" his children. 
Although no Gallic blood flows in his veins, still not less thaji 
Gallic zeal burns among "the sapless twigs of his exhausted 
heart." He is in entire sympathy with the plans and aspira- 
tions of the revolutionists, and he feels that a progeny of 

»"T/(e E.rcu,6ion. Book III, p. 107. 
'"Ibid., p. 108. 



RADICALISM IN COXTKM I'ORAUY POETRY 117 

golden years is about to descend and bless mankind. All the 
hopes of the Solitary, though, are blasted. He is disgusted 
with the way in which the revolution is [irogressing and sets 
sail for America, where he expects to find freedom from the 
restraints of tyranny. Shelley writes about America as 
follows : 

There is a people mighty in its youth, 

A land beyond the oceans of the west 

Where, though with rudest rites, Free<loin and Truth 

Are worshipped.^*" 

The Solitary's expectations are not fulfilled, and so he returns, 
(hispondent, to his own country. He is in this frame of mind 
when he meets the Wanderer, who tells him that the only ade- 
(|uate support for the calamities of life is belief in Providence. 
Victory, the Wanderer says, is sure if we strive to yield entire 
submission to the law of conscience. He compares the force 
of gravity, which constrains the stars in their motions, to the 
principle of duty in the life of man. In Act IV of Protnetheus 
Unhound Shelley compares the force of gravity to the impulse 
of love. There is no cause for despair, and "the loss of con- 
fidence in social Jiian." The beginning of the revolution had 
raised man's hopes unwarrantably high. As there was no 
cause then for such exalted confidence, so there is none now for 
fixed despair. 

The two extremes are equally disowned 

By reason. 
One should have patience and courage. It is folly to cxpcft 
the accomplishment in one day of "what all the slowly moving 
years of time have left undone." In the preface to The Revolt 
of Islam. Shelley writes: "But such a degree of unmingled 
good was expected (from the revolution) as it was impossible 
to realize. . . . Could they listen to the plea of reason who 
had groaned under the calamities of a social state according 
to the provisions of which one man riots in luxury whilst an- 
other famishes for want of bread? Can he who the day before 
was a trampled slave suddenly become liberal-minded? This 
is the consequence of the habits of a state of society to be 
produced by resolute perseverance and indefatigable hope, and 



"*Revolt of Islam, Canto XI, Bt. 22. 



US KAHICALISM IN CONTEMPORARY POETRY 

loug-sufferiiig and long-believing ct)uiago. and the systematic 
efforts of generations of men of intellect and virtue." The 
Wanderer exhorts the Sfolitary to engage in bodily exercise 
and to study nature. He contrasts the dignity of the imagi- 
nation with the presumptuous littleness of certain modern 
philosophers. At this point the Solitary remarks that it is 
impossible for some to rise again; that the mind is not free. 
It is as vain to ask a man to resolve as bid a creature My 
"whose very sorrow is that time hath shorn his natural wiugs.'' 
The Wanderer replies that the ways of restoration are mani- 
fold 

fashioned to the steps 
Of all infirmity, and tending all 
To the same point, attainable by all 
I'eace in ourselves and union with our (lod. 

The Wanderer calls upon the skies and hills to testify to the 
existence of God. AVordsworth the Wanderer finds an answer 
for Wordsworth the Solitary in Nature. He sees that there is 
a Living Spirit in Nature; a spirit whidi aninuites all things, 
from "tlie meanest fiow^er that blows" to the glorious birth of 
sunshine; a spirit which ]>ervades matter and gives to each its 
distinctive life and being. He sees (lod in everything. 

To every form of being is assigned 

An act ire principle . . . 

. . . from link to link 

It circulates the soul of all the worlds.'®^ 

Shelley, in a letter to Hogg, January o, 1812, speaks about 
"the soul of the Universe, the intelligent and necessarily benefi- 
cent actuating principle." 

Wordsworth's treatment of nature is original in this that 
nature is no longer viewed as a garden or laboratory where 
man's processes are carried on, but she is recognized as being 
over and above him and penetrating his whole life by impulses 
that emanate from her. Wordsworth spiritualizes nature. 
He views her phenomena as so numy "varying manifestations 
of one life sacred, great, and all-pervading. "This life of 
nature is felt more when man is alone with her and hence the 
love of solitude which marks the Wordsworthian h:i)>il •>■' 



^The Excursion, verse 15. 



RADICALISM IN CONTP^MPOUARY POF^TRY 119 

mind."^*^ Other characteristics of Wordsworth besides the 
love for Nature's seclusion are "the reverence which sees in 
her a revelation of infinity and the recognition in her of a 
mysterious and poetic life." These are also characteristics of 
Shelley. His love of solitude is inspired by the desire to know 
nature in her inmost heart; "he has the same feeling for in- 
finite expanse and the same perception of an underlying life." 
He also insists, like Wordsworth, on "tlie education of nature." 
In the preface to Alantor, Whelley says that the subject of 
the poem represents a youth "led forth by an imagination in- 
flamed and purified througli familiarity with all that is ex- 
cellent and majestic, to tlie contemplation of the universe. 
. . . The magnificence and beauty of the external world 
sinks profoundly into the frume of his conceptions and affords 
to their modifications a variety not to be exhausted." In the 
introductory stanzas, Shelley asks this great parent, Nature, 
to inspire him that liis "strain may modulate with murmurs 
of the air." He tells us, too, "that every sight and sound from 
the vast earth and ambient air sent to his heart its choicest 
blessings." Wordsworth says, in Lines on Tintern Ahbey, that 

Nature never did betray 
The heart that loved her: 'tis her privilege,. 
Through all the years of this our life to lead 
From joy to joy ; for she can so inform 
The mind that is within us, so impress 
With quietness and beauty, and so feed 
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men. 
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all 
The dreary intercourse of daily life, 
Shall e'er prevail against us or disturb 
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold 
Is full of blessings. 

In the Prelude, Wordsworth speaks of the influence of nature 

as follows : 

Wisdom and spirit of the universe! 

That soul that art the eternity of thought. 

That givest to forms and images a breath 

And everlasting motion, not in vain 

By day or star-light thus from my first dawn 

Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me 

The passions that build up our human soul. 

"•L. Winstanley in Englische Studien, V. 34. 



V20 RADICALISM IX CONTEMPORARY POETRY 

This and the I)it'unatious of Immortality remiud us ol" the 

following passage in Queen Mah: 

Soul of the Universe I eternal spring 
Of life and death, of happiness and woe. 
Of all that chequers the phantasmal scene 
That floats before our eyes in wavering light. 
Which gleams but on the darkness of our prison, 
Whose chains and massy walls 
We feel, but cannot see. 

Wordsworth goes into the woods and hears a thousand notes 
all making sweet music, all in harmony. Furthermore, he feels 
that all living things, Howers and animals, are possessed of 
conscious life. 

And 'tis my faith that every tlower 
Enjoys the air it breathes. 

{Lities irrittcn in carli/ spri]ig.) 

Nature is throbbing not only with life but with the spirit of 
love, a spirit that knits the whole world of living things to- 
gether. 

Love, now a universal birth. 

From heart to heart is stealing. 

From earth to man, from man to earth. 

(To ;;/// sifftrr.) 

The same thought runs through many of Shelley's poem? 
In The Sensitive Plant the flowers live, love, and die. 

But none ever trembled and panted with bliss 
In the garden, the field, or the wilderness. 
Like a doe in the noontide, with love's sweet want. 
As the companionless sensitive ])lant. 

The beauty and loveliness of nature will do us more good 
"than all the sages can." They will inspire us as nothing 
else will. 

Dr. Ackermann draws attention to the kindness of Words- 
worth and Shelley for animals, and notes the similarity be- 
tween the two following passages.'"" Thus Wordsworth in 
The Excursion, IT, 41-47: 

Birds and beasts 
And the mute tish that glances in the stream 
And harmless reptile coiling in the sun 
. . , . he loved them all : 
Their rights acknowledging he felt for all. 

"•Quellen: Vorbilder, Staff e zu Shelley's Poetischen Werken. 



RADICALISM IN CONTKMl'ORARY POETRY 121 

And Shelley in Alastor, 13-15: 

If no bright bird, insect, or gentle beast 
I consciously have injured, but still loved 
And cherished these my kindred. 

Wordsworth concludes The Excursion and Shelley the Alastor 
with the desire for death. 

\Yith the name of Wordsworth, the name of that greater 
genius, Coleridge, will always be linked. Although they were 
life-long friends still no two could be more unlike in character 
and temperament. AVordsworth was moody and determined. 
He, like Shelley, worked out his plans unmindful of the opin- 
ion of others. Neglect and ridicule did not trouble him in the 
least. He was an excellent type of mens sana in corpore sano. 
Coleridge, on the other hand, was without ambition and 
steadiness of purpose. He drifted on through life in a listless 
manner, "sometimes committing a golden thought to the blank 
leaf of a book, or to a private letter, but generally content 
with oral communication."^'''' At an early age he had accom- 
plished great things and it was felt that these were but "the 
morning giving promise of a glorious day." He was scarcely 
thirty when he won distinction as a poet, journalist, lecturer, 
theologian, critic and philosopher. The "glorious day," how- 
ever, never matured. Sickness and opium were the clouds that 
obscured the brightness of his genius. His married life was 
not a happy one. As in the case of Shelley, jealousy and irri- 
tation on the part of the wife, and disenchantment on the part 
of the husband made home-life intolerable. 

One of the earliest manifestations of Coleridge's radicalism 
is his Ode on the Destruction of the Bastile, written in 1789. 
In it he rejoices at the overthrow of tyranny and the success 
of Freedom. Liberty with all her attendant virtues will now 
be the portion of all. 

Yes! Liberty the soul of life shall reign 

Shall throb in every pulse, shall flow thro' every vein ! 

He hopes that she will extend her influence wider and wider 
until every land shall boast "one independent soul." In his 
Ode to France he writes : 



""Jenkins: Handbook of Literature, p. 313. 



1'2'2 KADlCALlS^l IN Cl>NTKMrORAUY rOETKY 

NMth what deep WDi-sshii) I have still adored 
The spirit of diviiiest Liberty. 

Shelley may ha\e had this in mind when he wrote in Aloi^tor 

And lofty hopes of divine liberty 
Thonghts the most dear to him. 

Coleridge's most important radical work, which Lamb con- 
sidered to be more than worthy of Milton, is Rdigiouft }[usin(js. 
Shelley's Quern Mah bears so strong a resemblance to it that 
the Rclipious Musings has been called Coleridge's Quicn Mab. 
In the tirst part he lashes his countrymen for joining the coali- 
tion against France nnder i>retence of defending religion. 
Further on he gives his views on society, its origin and 
progress. It is to ]>rivate property that we mnst attribute 
all the sore ills that desolate our mortal life. Unlike many 
radicals, however. Coleridge can see the good in au institution 
as well as the evil. Thus he holds that the rivalry resulting 
from our present economic condition has stimulated thouglit 
and action 

From avarice thus, from luxury and war. 

Sprang heavenly science: and from science fi-eedom. 

The innumerable uuiltitude of wrongs, continues Coleridge, 
by man on man intlicted. cry to heaven for vengeance. Even 
now (ITOtn the storm begins which will cast to earth the 
rich, the great, and all the mighty men of the world. This will 
be followed by a period of sunshine, when Love will return and 
peace and ha]>piness be the portion of all. 

As when a shepherd on a vernal morn 

Through some thick fog creeps tinutrous with slow foot. 

Darkling with earnest eyes he traces out 

The immediate road, all else of fairest kind 

Hid or deformed. But lo ! the bursting Sun ! 

Touched by the enchantment of that sudden beam 

Straight the black vapor nu^lteth. and in globes 

Of dewy glitter gems each plant and tree: 

On every leaf, on every blade it hangs: 

And wide around the landscape streams with glory! 

So we will tly into the sun of love, impartially view creation, 
and love it all. We will then see that God diffused through 
society ma\es it ono whole; that everv victorious murder is a 



RADICALISM IN CONTEMPORARY POETRY 12;* 

blind suicide; that no one injures and is not uninjured. This 
change will be brought about by a return to pure Faith and 
meek I'iety. He differs from Shelley in this, that he does 
not look for reformation through the overtiiruing of thrones 
and churches. The existing framework of society is all right; 
it needs only to be freed from some of its barnacles. 

The first stanza of Coleridge's Love reminds one of the fol- 
lowing passage from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound (Act 
IV, 406) : 

His will, with nil mean passions, bad delights 
And selfish cares, its trembling satellites, 
A spirit ill to guide, but mighty to obey, 
Is as a tempest-winged ship, whose helm 
Love rules. 

Coleridge's stanza runs as follows: 

All thoughts, all passions, all delights 
Whatever stirs this mortal frame 
All are but ministers of Love 
And feed his sacred flame.^'*^ 

Shelley's sonnet to Tanthe is little more than a transposition 
of Coleridge's sonnet to his son. Shelley says: 

I love thee, Baby! for thine own sweet sake: 
Those azure eyes, that faintly dimpled cheek. 
Thy tender frame, so eloquently weak. 
Love in the sternest heart of hate might wake ; 
But more when o'er thy fitful slumber bending 
Thy mother folds thee to her wakeful heart. 
Whilst love and pity, in her glances blending. 
All that thy passive eyes can feel impart: 
More, when some feeble lineaments of her. 
Who bore thy weight beneath her spotless bosom. 
As with deep love I read thy face, recur, — 
More dear art thou, O fair and fragile blossom; 
Dearest when most thy tender traits express 
The image of thy mother's loveliness. ^''- 

Coleridge's runs as follows: 

Charles! my slow heart was only sad when first 

I scanned that face of feeble infancy : 

For dimly on my thoughtful spirit burst 

All T had been, and all my child might be! 

'"Dowden's ed., p. 135. 

'•'Dowden's Life of Shelley, Vol. I, p. 376. 



124 RADICALISM IN CONTEMPORARY POETRY 

But when I saw it on its mother's arm, 
And hanging at her bosom (she the while 
Bent o'er its features with a tearful smile), 
Tlien I was thrilled and melted, and most warm 
Impressed a father's kiss; and all beguiled 
Of dark remembrance and presageful fear, 
I seemed to see an angel's form appear — 
'Twas even thine, beloved woman mild I 
So for the mother's sake the child was dear 
And dearer was the mother for the child. 

Coleridge and Shelley made a universal application of a 
few metaphysical principles acquired in their early years; and 
on them ground their political and religious views. Poetry, 
metaphysics, morals and politics mixed themselves forever in 
their imagination."-^ 



^Courthope: History of Poetry, Vol. VI, p. 194. 



CHAPTEE VI 

CONCLUSION 

The radical, when theorizing, considers man in the abstract. 
He forgets about actual conditions — man with his inequali- 
ties. The only thing necessarj^, in his view, for the reforma- 
tion of society is to lay before mankind some logical plan of 
action. He loses sight of the fact that other influences, besides 
logic, play a part in the moulding of man's conduct. Newman 
says teach men to shoot around corners and then you may 
hope to convert them by means of syllogisms. ''One feels,'' 
Emerson writes, "that these philosophers have skipped no 
fact but one, namely, life. They treat man as a plastic thing, 
or something that may be put up or down, ripened or re- 
tarded, molded, polished, made into solid or fluid or gas at 
the will of the leader.""* The radical sees the millenium dawn- 
ing upon the land every time a new scheme is proposed for 
the amelioration of society. They do not apply any tests to 
determine its adaptability to the needs of the people. It satis- 
fies the rules of logic and for them this is suflScient. Burke 
considers this point in his speech, ''On Conciliation witli 
America." "It is a mistake to imagine that mankind follow 
up practically anj^ speculative principle as far as it will go 
in argument and in logical illation. All government, indeed 
every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every 
prudent act is founded on compromise and barter. We balance 
inconveniences; we give and take; we remit some rights that 
we may enjoy others. Man acts from motives relative to his 
interests; and not on metaphysical speculations." 

Shelley could not understand how it is that evils continue 
so pertinaciously to exist in society. He believed that men had 
but to will that there would be no evil and there would be 
none. It seemed to him that he could construct inside twenty- 
four hours a system of government and morals that would be 
perfect. "The science," Burke writes, "of constructing a com- 
monwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every 



*Essay on Owen. 

125 



126 roxoLusioN 

other experiiuenial scioiuc not to bo taught (/ priori. 2sor is it 
a short experience that can instruct ns in that practical 
science. . . . Tlie science of government being therefore so 
practical in itself, and intended for such practical purposes, 
a matter which requires experience, and even more experience 
than any person can gain in his whoU' life, however sagacious 
and observing he may be. it is with intinite caution that any 
man ought to venture upon pulling down an edifice which lias 
answered iu any tolerable degree for ages the common purposes 
of society, or on building it up again without having nu)dels 
and patterns of approved utility before his eyes. "'•''" 

The radical does not distinguish between essentials and non- 
essentials, lie sees some evils in connection with an institu- 
tion and forthwith would wipe that institution out of exist- 
ence. Ciarrison thought there was something in the constitu- 
tion of the United States that sanctioned slavery and so he 
described the constitution as "a league with death and a 
covenant with hell." As late as 1820 Shelley believed that 
"the system of society as it exists at present nuist be over- 
thrown from the foundations with all its superstructures of 
maxims and of forms."''^*^ He sees the evil and misses the good. 
The radical and tlie conservative both sin in this, that they 
take the cause of their adversaries not by its strong end, but 
by its weakest. 

Imaginative people see a few things clearly, and on that 
account do not see the whole. Their attention is entirely tiikeu 
up with a few details. Shelley had no connected view of the 
world. He has brilliant, perhaps exaggerated, pictures of 
parts of it. He picks out some misery here and some injus- 
tice there, and condemns the whole. Again, he does not otter 
a complete philosophy of life for us to follow. He takes a 
truth here and another there and deities them, exaggerates 
them as he does pictures of the world. His thoughts were 
so vivid that they outshone the counsels of the more conserva- 
tive. They impressed him so much that he could not see 
their limitations. Single views, a simple philosophy suited 
him. For this reason he made his guides and leaders those 



'*'Re fleet ihns. Vol. V. 

'"Letter to Leigh Hunt, May 1, 1820. 



CONCLUSION 1 27 

IthiloKophers of the eighteenth century who diHcarded the tor- 
tuous philosopliy of tlie pnst iind put forward a simple recipe 
which was to brinj^ light and happiness to the world. 

Radicals do a great deal of good by shaking otf our social 
torpor and disturbing our self-suCficient complacency. But 
they very often cause a great deal of harm, and then society 
lias a perfect right to defend itself against them. If they 
ignore the past, if they disregard llie wisdom of centuries, 
if they tend to subvert all that has been already done, they 
are not effecting the betterment of society, but its destruction. 
True reformers link themselves with the good already existing 
in society and war oidy against its evils. They will start 
with tilings as they are. Burke says that "the idea of inherit- 
ance furnishes a sure principle of conservation and a sure 
princii)le of transmission, without at all excluding a principle 
of improvement. It leaves acquisition free; but it secures 
what it acquires. ... By preserving the method of nature in 
the conduct of the state, in what we improve we are never 
wholly new; in what we retain we are never wholly obsolete." 
True, progress in all the arts and sciences requires a certain 
readiness to experiment with the unknown and try something 
new. Yet if that readiness be reckless, disaster will surely be 
the result. Desire to move forward must be moderate, must 
be harmonized with distrust of the unknown if real progress 
is to ensue. 

To improve society we must understand it, and to do this 
we must recognize its positive value. The work of social re- 
formers would be more effective if they had a better knowledge 
of existing laws and institutions. As a rule soap-box orators 
declaim against things about which they know little or nothing. 
A clear consciousness then of the good in the world, a clear 
understanding of the principles which bind this social world 
together is indispensable to the social reformer. To under- 
stand an object is to see through its defects to the positive 
qualities that constitute it ; for nothing is made up of its own 
shortcomings. Hence we must place our faith in evolution 
rather than revolution. Any reform that is to be made must 
be founded in the good at present working in the world. 

It cannot be said that Bhellev had a clear consciousness 



I'lS CONCLUSION 

of the social lorees at work in society or of the good being 
done by the institutions of his time. He admitted himself 
that he detested history, and one cannot form a just estimate 
of institutions without knowing something about their his- 
tory. Had he known something about the real history of 
Christianity or of the development of constitutional govern- 
ment in England he would not probably have been the radical 
that he was. He did not see that the institutions of his time 
were the product of the efforts of generations of men; lie did 
not realize that the social structure is the most complicated 
and delicate of all the products of human nature, and conse- 
quently did not appreciate the folly of some of the radical 
changes he proposed. 

tShelley had a horror of tradition and prejudice; yet a cer- 
tain amount of prejudice is necessary. A man who would 
solve all the problems of life without falling back on tradition 
would be obliged, in each of the decisions that he would make, 
to follow a line of thought or argumentation which would 
impose an intolerable burden on him. According to Shelley, 
the morality of an act is to be measured by the utilitarian 
standard, "the greatest good of the greatest number." How 
though can we measure the pleasure and the pain that flows 
from an action? In many cases we must take the judgment 
of the race; we must be guided by prejudice or tradition. 
''Prejudice," writes Burke, "is of ready application in the 
emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course 
of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating 
in the moment of decision, sceptical, puzzled and unresolved. 
Prejudice renders a man's virtue his habit and not a series of 
unconnected acts. Through just prejudice, his duty becomes 
a part of his nature."^"' 

'• The radical lays too much stress on the intiuence of institu- 
tions. Shelley ascribed to them all the evils of society. He 
was confident that a remodelling of them would bring about 
a complete reformation of society. Social wrongs are caused 
by men and men alone can cure them. 

The radical is so taken up with liis own ideas that he 
soon becomes eccentric. He loses, too, all sense of humor. He 



••■ Letter to Leigh Hunt, p. 82. 



CONCLUSION 129 

sees nothing but tragedy conrronting him at every turn. At 
Leghorn, Shelley, accompanied by a friend, visited a ship 
which was manned by Greek sailors. ''Does this realize your 
idea of Hellenism, Shelley?" his friend asked. "No ! but it does 
of hell," he replied. Almost every radical is lacking in tact, 
in moderation and in the sense of practical life. 

The radical is apt to think that everybody is against him. 
He does not credit his opponents with honest convictions, and 
so he imagines that he is being unjustly persecuted. Shelley 
thought that even his father sought to injure liim. "The 
idea," Peacock writes, "that his father was continually on the 
watch for a pretext to lock him up haunted him through life." 

This brings us to several of Shelley's traits which are char- 
acteristic of genius or insanity rather than of radicalism. 
In his Man of Genius Professor Lombroso says that the char- 
acteristics of insane men of genius are met with, though far 
less conspicuously, among the great men freest from any sus- 
picion of insanity. "Between the physiology of the man of 
genius," he writes, "and the pathology of the insane, there 
are many points of coincidence; there is even actual contin- 
uity." 

One of the most important of these characteristics is hallu- 
cination. Examples of geniuses who were subject to halluci- 
nations are Caesar, Brutus, Cellini, Napoleon, Dr. Johnson, 
and Pope. Shortly before his death Shelley saw a child rise 
from the sea and clap its hands. At Tanyralt, on the night of 
February 26, 1813, Shelley imagined that he heard a noise pro- 
ceeding from one of the parlors and immediately went down- 
stairs armed with two pistols. There, he said, he found a 
man who fired at him but missed. The report of Shelley's 
pistol brought the rest of the family on the scene, but none of 
them could find any trace of the intruder. It is generally 
conceded that this attack took place only in Shelley's fertile 
imagination. At another time Shelley imagined that he was 
afflicted with elephantiasis. One day towards the close of 
1813 he was traveling in a coach with a fat old lady, who, he 
felt sure, must be a victim of this disease. Later on at Mr. 
Newton's house as "he was sitting in an arm chair," writes 
Madame Gatayes, "talking to my father and mother, he sud- 



l.'iO OONlLlSlON 

(leiily slipped down on tho gronnd. twisting about like an eel. 
'What is the matter?' cried uiy niothor. In his in»v)ressiYo tone 
Shelley annonnoed 'I lia\e tlio elei>hantiasis.' . . . After a lew 
weeks this hallncination left him as suddenly as it came. 

"He took strange caprices/' writes Hogg, "unfounded frights 
and dislikes, vain apprehensions and panic terrors and tlune- 
fore he absented himself from formal and sacred engagements." 
It is well to keep this in mind when reading some of the 
criticism of Shelley. J. C JeatTerson cites a long list of facts 
to prove that Shelley was a wilful prevaricator. Almost all 
of these can be explained away through the assumption that 
Shelley himself was deceived when he told something that did 
not square with the known facts of the case. "Had he," writes 
Hogg, "written to ten ditlerent individuals the history of some 
])roceeding in which he was himself a party and an eye-witness 
each of his ten reports would have varied from the rest in essen- 
tial and important circumstances." 

"Cienius," says Lombroso, "is conscious of itself, appreciates 
itself, and certainly has no monkish humility." Shelley oftx?n 
expressed regret that the rest of mankind was not as good as 
himself and his soulmate. Miss Hitcheuer. He thought that 
he had no faults. 

Another characteristic of the genius is tJint he must be 
continually traveling from one place to another. This is cer- 
tainly true of Shelley. He seldom renmiued longer than a year 
in one place. 

Shelley in common with most sane men of genius was much 
preoccupied with liis own ego. lie loved to talk and write 
about himself and his opinions. The most important of his 
poems contain pictures of himself. 

"These energetic intellects,'' writes Lombroso. "are the true 
pioneers of science; they rush forward regardless of danger, 
facing with eagerness the greatest difficulties — perhaps be- 
cause it is these which best satisfy their morbid energy." 
Shelley was always end)arking on some foolish enterprise. 
He ran away with a school girl without having in sight any 
means of support. He went to Ireland to emancipate the 
whole race; and after this failed ho set about reclaiming a 
large tract of land from the sea at the little town of Tremadoc, 



CONCLUSION 181 

Wales. He liiially lost hiw life through venturiug out to sea 
in 8tornjy weather with an undermanned boat.^®* 

Matthew Arnold'H dictum, then, that Whelley was not sane 
is a gross exaggeration. The characteristics of his life which 
would seem to uiihold Arnold's assertion are found in sane 
men of genius. That he was abnormal in some ways cannot 
be denied, in a letter which Mrs. Shelley wrote to Kir John 
Jiowring when she sent him the holograph manuscript of the 
Mask of Anarchy, there is the following reference to her hus- 
band : **Do not be afraid of losing the imjjression you have con- 
cerning my lost Shelley by conversing with anyone who knows 
about him. The mysterious feeling you experience was partici- 
I>Mted by all his friends, even bj' me, who was ever with 
him — or why say even I felt it more than any other, because 
by sharing liis fortune, 1 was more aware that any other 
of his wondrous excellencies and the strange fate which at- 
tended him on all occasions. ... I do not in any degree be- 
lieve that his being was regulated by the same laws that govern 
the existence of us common mortals, nor did anyone think 
so who ever knew him. I have endeavored, but how inade- 
quately, to give some idea of him in my last published book — 
the sketch has pleased some of those who best loved him — 
1 might have made more of it, but there are feelings which 
one recoils from unveiling to the public eye.""® 

Shelley always remained a child. This was the opinion of 
one of his greatest admirers, Francis Thompson. "The child 
appeared no less often in Shelley the philosopher than in 
Shelley the idler. It is seen in his repellant no less than in his 
amiable weaknesses." To this fact, perhaps, may be ascribed 
the luxuriance of his imagination ; it is freer in childhood 
than in old age. 

Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! 
Shades of the prison-house begin to close 

Upon the growing boy. 
But he beholds the light and whence it flows 

He sees it in his joy.^'^*^ 

He has been described as "a beautiful spirit building his 



"'Guldo Biagi: Oli ultimi giorni di P. Shelley. 
"•Quoted In Shelley Society Papers, Part I, p. 94. 
'"'Wordsworth: Ode on the Intimations of Immortality. 



niaiiy-ooloioii ha/.o oi' words aiul imajios." Vov liini idoalisiii 
was luoiv than a luvd of tho spirit ; it was tho principal olo- 
ment of his being.-'" Anvono who cU'arod awav obstjuMos 
from tho path of his imagination had all the attraction of a 
kindred spirit. This helps to explain (lOdwin's inlluence over 
him. Uis father-in-law advocated the entire abolition of exist- 
ing institutions, and left the work ttf reconstruction to man's 
imagination. Here it was that S^hellev found full scope for 
the exercise of his faculties. He cannot be said to have con 
tributed many original ideas to nineteenth century literature. 
"He merely familiarizes the highly refined inuigination of the 
moi-e select classes of poetical readers with beautiful idealisms 
of nu>ral excellence." 

Kadicalism is a characteristic of youth. Almost every per- 
son who is of any importance in his community will be found 
to have started out in life, boiling over with enthusiasm and 
eager to help on reform by advocating a change in this or that 
institution. N'ery often this interferes with their judgment. 
Racon had this in mind when he wri>te: "Is not the opinion 
of Aristotle worthy to be regarded wherein he saith that, young 
uieu are not tit auditors of moral philosophy, because they 
are not settled from the bt>iling-l\eat of their atfections nor 
tempered with time and experience."-'"- Shake^>peare endorses 
this in TroiJus onif ('rrssi(fa. Act 11, scene L\ 

not much 
Tnlike young men. wlunn .\ristotle tl\onght 
Tntit to hear moral philosophy. 

That Shelley, hail lie lived. wt>uld have followed in the foot- 
steps of ^^'ordsworth. (\)leridge and Sou they and become a con- 
servative may well be doubted. However, his life shows some 
progress in that direction. He liad learneil to become more 
tolerant of various tyi>es of men: and Stopfiu-d Hrooke main- 
tains that there aiv indications in Shelley's works to show 
that he would have become a Christian, 

It is unfortunate that Slielloy never came into close personal 



•'''•"Tutte le ciroostauze della vita dello Shelley attostano come in lul 
la poesia. la vislone. ridealisuio t'ossero, \\\u die iin bisogno dello spirito, 
il principnle.-^lemento oostitutive dell osser suo." G. Chiarini, Ombre 
figure. 

■'Adrannmcut of Lcaruino. Book 11. 



CONCLUKIOX 133 

contact with a Hiirk<; who cowhJ take him out of th(5 n^gion of 
irrifiginfif ion and rji;ikc liiiii appi-(;cial(', the beauty of onjf^r and 
institutions. Had Shelley met such a one he might have 
been influenced in the way that the Greek Augiistine was bene- 
fited by the Koman Ambrose. Sonthey might have helped 
Shelley if he had shown more consideration for our poet'H ex- 
tremely sensitive feelings. Houthey's pet argument was that 
Sh(;Iley was too young to understand the question they were 
discussing. "When you are as old as I am," he would say, 
"then you will see things in a different light." Such a line 
of reasoning has no influence on men of Shelley's stamp. 

Aubrey I)e Vere, in a letter to Heniy Taylor, December 12, 
1882, states that Shelley's character had two great natural 
defects. The first was a want of robustness which took away 
from him stability and self-possession. The second was his 
want of reverence. "There is," he writes, "an insolence of 
audacity in some passages of Bhelley on religious subjects 
which admits only of two interpretations, viz., something in 
his original cercibral organization doubtless augmented by 
circumstances that hindered proper development in some part 
of it or else pride in (juite an extraordinary degree." Lest this 
should appear to give I)e Vere's complete view of Shelley I 
(piote further from the same letter. "Something angelic there 
was certainly about him, something that I recognized from 
the first day that I read his poetry. His intelligence had 
also a keen logic about it." 

The radical is gifted with a powerful constructive imagina- 
tion. He feels keenly the failures of institutions and is led 
to construct an ideal state of society. He takes all the good 
lie knows, joins the pieces together, beautifies and adorns the 
picture until he has formed an earthly paradise. This has its 
advantages as only those whose imaginations are fired by fine 
ideals will ever stir the world with noble deeds. To succeed 
you must, as Emerson expresses it, "hitch your wagon to a 
star." 

Imagination has, of course, its dangers. Some are content 
to day dream; to live in the world of their imagination. They 
are impatient of the failures, of the slow, steady toil that pre- 
cedes success. They forget that change works slowlj'. "He 



134 CONCLUSION 

who has a clear grasp of a concrete ideal and a clear insight 
into the conditions, realization, and the difficulties in the actual 
world by which it is beset will be the true social reformer of 
the world. '"-'^^ Shelley had a good grasp of the ideal, but he 
did not know how to cross over from the ideal to the real. 
This journey is a long and tedious one. '*A11 progress,'' Mac- 
Kenzie writes, "which is guided by an ideal must be more or 
less of the nature of a stumble."^"* "Our very walking," as 
Goethe puts it, "is a series of falls.'- Bacon writes, "certainly 
it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, 
rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of the earth." 
Shelley's mind moved in charity, but turned anywhere except 
upon the poles of the earth. 

Notwithstanding all its shortcomings radicalism fulfils a 
very useful purpose in society. It keeps before our eyes the 
ideal. ''It emphasizes the moral over the material; man over 
property. Its prominence in society insures progress and gives 
promise that ideals shall not perish; that hope shall not wane, 
and that society shall long for perfection and peace, without 
which longing no progress is possible."-"^ Radicalism em- 
phasizes the ideal; conservatism the real. Out of the two 
springs progress. "One is the moving power; the other the 
steadjung power of the state. One is the sail without which 
society would make no progress ; the other the ballast without 
which there would be small safety in a tempest."-"*' 

It is strange that the experience of centuries has not taught 
men to be more tolerant towards the radical. We see how 
blind was the generation behind us in resisting the obvious 
reforms which it was asked to approve ; yet it never enters our 
heads to suspect that the next generation will consider as 
obvious reforms what we consider subversive proposals, and 
will wonder at our stupidity in having offered any resistance 
to them. 

Shelley was a "sentimental" rather than a "philosophical"^"^ 

""J. S. McKenzie: Social Philosophy, p. 428. 
'"Ibid., p. 42. 

"^Am. Oath. Quarterly, Vol. 28, p. 239. 
""MacAulay: Essay on the Earl of Chatham. 

"'Carlyle calls the philosophical radicals "paralytic radicals" because 
their theories lead to inaction. 



CONCLUSION 135 

radical. He inflamed wills rather than enlightened minds. He 
roused men to action instead of solving difficult problems. 

Man is influenced more by his emotions than by his intellect 
and hence the importance of the position which the sentimental 
radical holds in the history of society. If the radical arouses 
helpful emotions the amount of good he does is incalculable, so 
too is the amount of harm an unwise radical is responsible for. 

The emotions which Shelley's ])oetry arouse are on the whole 
helpful. True a few of the details of one or two of his works 
should be condemned, but these usually serve to bring out the 
main idea of the work which is always an inspiring one. 
Nobody thinks of condemning ''Lear" because of the vileness 
of Goneril. If we would interpret any writer's meaning and 
message the first thing to attend to is to regard the work ''as 
a whole bearing on life as a whole." Doing this we will grasp 
what is central, and at the same time will appreciate the true 
value of all details. Francis Thompson does not believe that 
any one ever had his faith shaken through reading Shelley. 
He knows, too, only of three passages to which exception 
might be taken from a moral point of view. Shelley extolled 
Justice, Freedom and Equality; and he denounced tyranny 
and injustice. His poetry should inspire men to be more 
charitable and tolerant, to seek less after wealth and the 
applause of the world, to sympathize more and more with 
suffering humanity, to return good for evil and to pursue the 
common good of all with more zeal and enthusiasm. 

One or more of the faculties of every poet are more highly 
developed than those of ordinary people. In some cases it is 
the senses; in others the imagination. Tennyson and Words- 
worth are good examples of the first class. They note and 
describe shades of color — in flowers, in the sky — the music of 
waters, and a hundred other things that escape the notice of 
common mortals. In Shelley it is his imagination, his faculty 
for feeling the sufferings of others that is abnormal. He sees a 
woman afflicted with elephantinsis, and straightway imagines 
that he himself has the same disease. Shelley keenly feels the 
misery around him, gives expression to that feeling, and 
castigates the causes of that misery. • 



136 CONCLUSION 

Shelley's poetry exercises our imagiuatiou, takes us away 
from ourselves and makes us think about our neighbors. The 
great trouble with tlie world today is that men think only 
about themselves, their own wants and their own joys. If we 
were made to feel the sufferings of the poor one-half of the 
evils of society would be eliminated. Anything then that 
brings home to us the evils of society is a blessing. "Every 
grade of culture," writes Dr. Kerby, ''has its own spirit of 
fellowship, its own code, understanding and secrets. Hence it 
is that the imagination has a supreme role in the neighborly 
relations of men. As social processes unite men in imagina- 
tion, they supply the basis of concord, service and trust. . . . 
Keason may talk of social solidarity, and economic or socio- 
logical analysis may show us how intimately all men are 
united ; the catechism may appeal to intellect and tell us that 
mankind of every description is our neighbor. But only they 
have entrance to our hearts to whom imagination gives the 
passport; only they are neighbors whom imagination accepts 
and embraces.''-^' The work of reconstructing human brother- 
hood is in a great measure the work of the imagination. 

The objection may be raised here that although Shelley's 
imagination was very strong, still he was guilty of great wrong 
to Harriet. In reply one may say that the imagination is only 
one-half the mould which forms the perfect man. The other 
half is made up of reason and revealed religion. Where these 
two parts of the mind are found together we get great men. 
They exist side by side in the saints. A man may know all about 
ascetical theology, or all about his profession, but if he has not 
imagination he will always be a plodder. To come more 
directly to our difficulty, Shelley had the motive power of 
imagination and the guiding force of reason, but not that of 
revealed religion. The result was that he went off at a tangent 
when he dealt with matrimony. His case should be a convinc- 
ing argument to women at least that Christianity Is necessary 
for the happiness and well-being of mankind. In so far as 
Shelley's imagination was guided by the light of reason, he 
was a saint. Trelawnv savs that Shellev stinted himself to 



'■'-'The Catholic World, Vol. 87, p. 744. 



CONCLUSION 137 

bare necessities, and then often lavished the money saved by 
unprecedented self-denial on selfish fellows who denied them- 
selves nothing. 

Some of Shelley's poetry is calculated to arouse one's anger 
and hatred of wrong. A people who are destitute of these 
emotions are fit subjects for the yoke. As long as there are 
men ready to take advantage of another's weakness; as long 
as there are selfish men who will advance themselves at the 
expense of others, so long will it be necessary to keep alive in 
men the spirit of hatred of injustice. 

The difficulty with a great many critics of Shelley is that 
they confound Shelley's railing at the evils of religion and 
governments with railing at religion and government itself. 
In places, it is true, he would seem to be a complete anarchist, 
but then allowance should be made for the sweeping gen- 
eralizations that are characteristic of poetry and radicalism. 
Those passages in which he would seem to condemn all religion 
and government should deceive no one. 

No doubt it is wrong to brood too much over the misery of 
the world. One misses a great deal if one sees only the evil, 
and never sees any of the good nor experiences any of the joy 
of life. Extreme pessimism is as harmful as extreme optimism. 
The pessimism that lets in no ray of hope is a plague. Such 
though is not the pessimism of Shelley. His pictures of the 
evils of society are illumined by the reflection from the happier 
state of society that is about to come to pass. 

Shelley would do away with government and authority. 
Surely, some would say, that is enough to discredit him as a 
thinker forever. On the contrary, it shows how far in advance 
of his time he was; it shows he had a good grasp of the 
sociological principle that the less compulsion and the more 
cooperation under direction there is in any state the better it 
is. Shelley never meant to say that he would here and now 
abolish all authority. No one saw more clearly than he that 
chaos would result from the removal of authority from society 
as at present constituted. When Shelley writes about freedom 
from authority he is picturing the ideal state where men will 
be just and wise. He very likely doubted that such a state was 
possible here below, still he thought it was incumbent on every- 



138 CONCLUSION ' 

body to strive alter this ideal. He wanted men to so perfect 
themselves, to so act, that laws and policemen wonld become 
less and less necessary. 

Shelley may not have the "sense of established facts," and 
may be nnable to offer snggestions which will work out well in 
practice, but he does infuse a higher and a nobler conception 
of life into the consciousness of a people. What Wordsworth 
said concerning his own poems is true of the works of Shelley. 
''They will cooperate with the benign tendencies in human 
nature and society, and will, in Iheir degree, be efficacious in 
making men wiser, better, and happier." 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The best critical edition of Shelley's complete work is that 
by H. B. Forman in eight volumes, London, 1880. Other use- 
ful editions of the poetical works are : Professor G. E, Wood- 
berry's, four volumes, Boston, 1892; Professor Dowden's, one 
volume, London, 1900; T. Huchinson's, Oxford, 1905; and W. 
M. Rossetti's, three volumes, London, 1881. 

For an account of the earlier publications of Shelley's works 
consult The Shelley Library: an Essay in Bibliography, by H. 
B. Forman. 

The most comprehensive and authoritative life of Shelley is 
that by Professor Dowden in two volumes, London, 1886. 

The following are the chief authorities, critical and bio- 
graphical, to be consulted : 

AcKERMANN, R. : (a) Quellen zu Shelley's Poetischen Wcrken. 1890. 

(b) Shelley's Epipsychidion und Adonais. 1900. 

(c) Prometheus Unbound, Kritische textansgabe, etc. 

1908. 
Allen, Edith L.: Shelley Day by Day. 1910. 
Allen, Leslie H.: Die Personlichkeit P. B. Shelley's. 1907. 
Angeli, Helen A.: Shelley and His Friends in Italy. 1911. 
Alexander, W. J.: Select Poems of Shelley. 
Axon, W. E.: Shelley's Vegetarianism. 1891. 
Bates, E. S. : A Study of Shelley's Drama. The Cenci. 
Belfast, Earl of: Poets and Poetry of the Nineteenth Century. 1852. 
Bennett, D.: The World's Sages, Infidels and Thinkers. 1876. 
BrbnthsexX, S.: Der Spinozismus in Shelley's Weltanschauung. 1900. 
BiAZi, GuiDo: The Last Days of P. B. Shelley. 1898. 
Brailsford, H. N.: Shelley, Godwin, and Their Circle. 
Brown: The Prometheus Unbound of Shelley. 

Bbandes, G. : Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, Vol. IV. 
Brandl, Samuel T.: Coleridge und die Englische Romantik. 1886. 
Brooke, Stopfobd A.: Studies in Poetry. 1907. 
Btron, May.: A Day with the Poet P. B. Shelley. 1910. 
Calvert, G. H. : Coleridge, Shelley, Ooethe, Biographic Aesthetic 

Studies. 1880. 
Carducci, G.: Promcteo Liberato, Torino Roma. 1894. 
CiiEVRiLLON, T. A.: Etudes Anglaises. 1901. 
Chiarini, Giuseppe: Ombre e Figure Saggi Critici. 1883. 
A. Clutton-Brock : Shelley; the Man and the Poet, 1910. 
Courthope, W. J.: The Liberal Movement in English Literature. 1885. 

13f) 



140 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Chapman, E. M.: English Literature and Religion. 1800-1900. 

Claeke. Miss H. A.: Prometheus Unboutid. 

CoPELAND, C. T.: Shelley, P. B., Vol. IV. Gateway Series Texts. 

CouBTHOPE. W. J.: A History of English Poetry, Vol. VI. 1910. 

Crashway, Rose M.: Byron. Shelley. Keats Prize Essays. 1893. 

Darmesteter, James: Essais de Litterature Anglaise. 1883. 

Dawson, W. J.: Quest and Vision, Essays in Life and Literature. 1886. 

Dell. E. E.: Pictures from Shelley. 1892. 

De Quinct, Thomas: Essays on the Poets. 

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Ellis, F. S.: Alphabetical table of contents adapted to Forman's. 1888. 
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(b) Imagination and Fancy. 
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Masson, D.: Wordsiforth. Shelley, Keats, and other Essays. 1874. 



BIBLIOGRAl'HY 141 

Manfouu, Eimkb: Die personlichen Bexiehungen zioischen Byron and 

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142 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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Zettneb, Hans: Shelley's Mythendichtung. 1902. 



BIOGRAPHY 143 



BIOGKAPHY 



The author of this dissertation was born in Glassburn, 
Nova Scotia, November 7, 1881, He attended the public school 
there until the fall of 1896, when he entered St. Francis 
Xavier University, Antigonish, N. S. In November, 1900, he 
entered the Propaganda College, Kome, and was ordained a 
priest in 1904. The years 1908 and 1909 he devoted largely to 
the study of English literature, and in July, 1910, passed the 
preliminary post-graduate examinations in English at St. 
Francis Xavier University. In October of the same year he 
entered the Catholic University of America, where he pursued 
studies in English under Professors Lennox and Hemelt; in 
sociology under Dr. Kerby, and in economics under Dr. 
O'Hara. To these gentlemen and to the Kt. Rev. Bishop 
Shahan for kindly encouragement he wishes to acknowledge a 
debt of gratitude. 






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